Second Half Surge Propels Cougars Over Skipjacks

For Frederick Community College's men's and women's teams, reaching the .500 mark or better has become a major goal. Both teams took a step closer on Saturday to hitting that .500 mark with wins over Chesapeake College.

The Cougars men had a bit of a slow start, trading a few leads back and forth before pulling away for a 94-78 win to go to 7-10 on the year.

For the FCC women, it wasn't as easy.

Thanks to a furious, 36-point, fourth quarter rally, the Cougars' women tied the score at the end of regulation, then pulled away in overtime for an 87-83 win.

The Cougars go to 6-10.

"It just puts a little bit more of an expectation on the guys," FCC men's coach Emonte Hill said of the state JuCo tournament qualification standard. "We talked to them about it, they understand. We're right where we want to be. We want to be able to put ourselves in a position where we can scratch those top eight. As long as we take care of business, I think we can do that."

The Cougars did that on Saturday. Even with the rough start, FCC soon got into its rhythm, easing away from Chesapeake (3-11). The Cougars led at halftime, 45-32, and led by as much as 20 in the second half.

"For 40 minutes, I think we executed well, played with a lot of energy," FCC guard Morris Robinson said. "We had a lot of good runs today."

Morris finished with 19 points. He hit a key 3-pointer with 7 minutes, 33 seconds to go in the first half which gave FCC a 28-21 lead. Up until that point, The Skipjacks were hanging with the Cougars, staying within three points.

"Everyone is in their right places on the floor, we're getting better every day," Morris said. "We're putting ourselves in a position to get more W's."

Sophomore forward Jordan Dawson came off the bench to score 14 points, nine in the first half. He also had eight rebounds.

"We all bring energy to each other," Dawson said. "We all feed off that and get the momentum going. We had a few small breakdowns, but that's something we will work on in practice."

Freshmen forward-center Jacob McIntosh was the top scorer for FCC with 21 points, 18 in the second half. Three times during the second half, he scored four straight.

McIntosh also had a few crowd-pleasing alley-oop buckets during the game. "You just have to wait for one of the point guards to get a pass up near the rim to you, then get up to get to the ball." he said.

Josiah Jones rounded out the double-figure scorers for FCC with 12 points. McIntosh had six rebounds with two blocks. Robinson had five steals and five assists. O'Nel David had five assists.

"We're right where we want to be, playing our best basketball at the right time," Hill said. "We took our lumps early. We knew it might be a rough start, but I think we are now beginning to play our best basketball as a team."

Kamron Hall had 22 points for the Skipjacks. Paul Joseph and Shyheim Washington each had 11. Joshua Johnson and Jamori Hall each had 10.