From the HCC sports desk:
BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men’s basketball team evened its home record to 4-4 as it edged out Patrick Henry, 79-74, in the first-ever televised game at Susquehanna Center on Saturday night.
The Fighting Owls (5-7) played a doubleheader with the women’s team that was taped by the local Harford Cable Network and is to be aired in early January.
The Owls did not disappoint in the first TV game in the history of the school, playing the Patriots (9-4) to a 79-74 nail-biter which saw clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch by Harford. The Owls took a 70-69 lead with under three minutes to play and built it up to a seven-point, 79-72, lead as they connected on 9 of 10 shots on five trips to the charity stripe.
Freshman Butch Faulcon (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) continued his extraordinary play as of late, tallying his third straight double-double with 20 points and 15 boards, while contributing 10 of the Owls’ 28 total free throws, on 12 attempts. The forward also dished out four assists, swiped four balls from the Patriots, and blocked one shot in his fourth straight game with 20 points or more.
Freshman Troy Burgan (Akron, Ohio/North) added a career-high 26 points on 9-for-14 shooting, while also shooting 8-for-12 from the line and tallying three assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Marvin Jackson led Patrick Henry, recording 16 points on 6-for-13 shooting, including 4-for-5 from the line, and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out of the game at the 1:50 mark.
The Owls jumped on the board first in the first half, taking a 1-0 lead off a free throw by freshman Jesse Volk (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) and after three ties, the last at eight points with just under 16:00 left, took a four-point lead, 12-8, their largest of the first half.
The Patriots battled back to tie two more times before taking sole possession of the lead on a 3-pointer from Anthony Wootten that made the score 17-14 at the 12:21 mark.
Patrick Henry would extend that advantage to eight, 26-18, with 9:50 to go as they completed a 12-4 run over about four minutes, but Harford answered with a 10-2 run and knotted the score for the sixth time, this time at 28 points apiece with just over 7:00 left.
Two more Patriot possessions saw Patrick Henry take a 32-28 lead, but a thunderous dunk on the fast break from Burgan silenced the rowdy Patriot fans and after Faulcon drew the foul and buried his free throws on the next Owl possession, the teams were tied once again, 32-32 with 5:45 left to play.
A 9-0 run by the Patriots, however, put them up 41-32 and the Owls could only manage to cut that lead to seven, 44-37 going into halftime.
After just one minute had elapsed in the second half, Harford saw itself down 13, 50-37, but a 15-4 run over the next four and half minutes put the Owls within two, 54-52, with 14:30 to go, and another three minutes of play completed a 21-8 run and tied things up, 58-58 at 11:21.
Harford wouldn’t take the lead for another three minutes, however, as the Patriots built a five-point lead, 63-58, with 9:30 left. The Owls answered with six unanswered points to take their first lead, 64-63 with 8:05 left, since leading 14-12 with 13:53 in the first half.
The accomplishment was short-lived, though, as the lead changed hands four times in the next four minutes, with the Owls taking sole possession, 68-67 with 4:12 to play. Harford tacked on some much needed cushion thanks to Burgan’s second fast break dunk of the day to open up a three-point lead on the Patriots.
James Robertson took a feed from Marlin Cribbs and tallied the layup at the 2:55 mark, which put Patrick Henry within one, but the clutch free-throw shooting took over for the Owls as Volk notched two freebies to put Harford up, 72-69, with 2:36 to go and another made free throw by freshman Kartrell Claiborne (Prince George, Va./Prince George) made it a two-possession game, 73-69, at the 1:54 mark.
Faulcon tallied his final two points of the day thanks to the free throws that followed the fifth and disqualifying foul for Jackson to put Harford up, 75-69, with 1:50 left.
A long shot from behind the arc by Robertson cut that lead in half, but freshman Jasper Holleman (Richmond, Va./Matoaca) connected on all four tries in his final two trips to the line to give the Owls a 79-72 lead with just nine seconds left, before Josh McGill tipped in a last minute shot to give Harford the 79-74 victory.
The Fighting Owls return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 17 when they host Delaware Tech for a 7:00 p.m. contest, before closing out the year with a game on Saturday, Dec. 20 against the jayvee squad from St. Mary’s at 3:00 p.m.
Newspaper Box Score
Patrick Henry vs Harford
12/13/08 4:00 p.m. at Bel Air, Md.
At Bel Air, Md.
HARFORD 79, PATRICK HENRY 74
PATRICK HENRY (9-4)
Ricks, Lemar 6-11 3-4 16; Jackson, Marvin 6-13 4-5 16; Robertson, James 5-15
2-2 13; McGill, Josh 5-12 2-4 12; Brooks, Marvin 4-10 0-0 9; Wootten,
Anthony 3-9 1-2 8; Cribbs, Marlin 0-7 0-0 0; James, Riley 0-1 0-0 0. Totals
29-78 12-17 74.
HARFORD (5-7)
Burgan,Troy 9-14 8-12 26; Faulcon,Butch 5-13 10-12 20; Volk,Jesse 4-13 4-6
13; Claiborne,Kartrell 3-6 2-3 9; Holleman,Jasper 2-10 4-4 9; Perkins,Lionel
1-6 0-0 2; Mead,Kevin 0-2 0-0 0; Hill,Ian 0-3 0-2 0; Dell, Gabe 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 24-68 28-39 79.
Patrick Henry 44 30 74
Harford 37 42 79
3-point goals–Patrick Henry 4-19 (Brooks, Marvin 1-4; Robertson, James 1-6;
Ricks, Lemar 1-1; Wootten, Anthony 1-2; Cribbs, Marlin 0-1; James, Riley
0-1; McGill, Josh 0-1; Jackson, Marvin 0-3), Harford 3-18 (Holleman,Jasper
1-3; Volk,Jesse 1-5; Claiborne,Kartrell 1-1; Mead,Kevin 0-2; Dell, Gabe 0-1;
Perkins,Lionel 0-5; Burgan,Troy 0-1). Fouled out–Patrick Henry-Cribbs,
Marlin; Jackson, Marvin, Harford-None. Rebounds–Patrick Henry 47 (McGill,
Josh 11), Harford 51 (Faulcon,Butch 15). Assists–Patrick Henry 14 (Wootten,
Anthony 4; Robertson, James 4), Harford 14 (Faulcon,Butch 4; Holleman,Jasper
4). Total fouls–Patrick Henry 28, Harford 14. Technical fouls–Patrick
Henry-None, Harford-None. A-231
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.