Harford Men’s Basketball Ends Season with 92-77 Loss to Cecil in Region XX Semifinal

From the HCC sports desk:

BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men’s basketball team’s season came to an end on Saturday as it fell to No. 1 Cecil, 92-77, in the Region XX semifinal game at Hagerstown Community College. The No. 4 Fighting Owls (16-9) advanced to the semifinal with a 99-82 win over No. 5 CCBC-Essex in Friday’s quarterfinal matchup but couldn’t best the Seahawks (22-3).

Harford’s chances looked good going into the semifinal game as the Owls battled Cecil to a 100-99 overtime decision, in the Seahawks favor, during the teams’ regular-season meeting on Jan. 16 and the Owls were also coming off a dominant win over Essex after falling to the Knights just one week earlier in the MDJUCO opening round.

Halftime saw Harford down by seven, 37-30—a substantial deficit but still manageable. Both teams amped up their offense in the second half, but Harford couldn’t scale back its deficit, scoring just 47 points to the Seahawks’ 55 on the way to the 92-77 loss.

Freshman Denard Dickens (Williamsburg, Va./Warhill) led Harford with 17 points, while freshman DaMonte Vales (Akron, Ohio/Firestone) added 14 and sophomores Troy Burgan (Akron, Ohio/North), Jamar Cooper (Petersburg, Va./Petersburg) and John Schwarz (Perry Hall, Md./Perry Hall/Mount St. Mary’s) tallied 12, 10 and 10 points, respectively, in the final game of their Harford careers.