Poor start to second half cripples FCC men
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
29 | 60 | 89 |
|
|
36 | 44 | 80 |
| Game Statistics | Harford Community College | Frederick Community College |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (29-58) | (27-72) |
| Field Goal % | 50.0% | 37.5% |
| Rebounds | 32 | 0 |
| Assists | 16 | 0 |
| Turnovers | 4 | 0 |
By Bill Cauley, Frederick News Post
Heading into Saturday's game with Harford Community College, the Frederick Community College men's basketball team needed to win and get help from other teams to reach the top eight in the Maryland JuCo Conference standings, thus earning a berth in the upcoming state tournament.
For the first half against the Fighting Owls, it looked like the Cougars were on track, leading by seven at halftime.
Then, things went terribly wrong.
Harford stormed back to take the lead in the second half. The Owls went on to lead by as many as 19 and stopped FCC 89-80, dealing a major blow to the Cougars' playoff hopes.
"We preached at halftime that the first five minutes of the second half was going to be the most important part of the game," FCC coach Emonte Hill said. "We weren't ready for the first five minutes of the second half. Consequently, they take the lead during that five minutes."
FCC (10-12 overall, 5-7 in Maryland JuCo) is two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot, with a crucial road game at Cecil on Tuesday. The Cougars close out their state JuCo schedule Saturday at home against Anne Arundel. FCC must win both, getting a lot of help, too.
At the start of the second half, Harford came back to tie the score at 40 on a 3-pointer by Aaron McDonald with 17:16 to go, then took a 43-40 lead on another McDonald 3 just 36 seconds later.
Harford never let up after that, swelling the lead to 19.
"Unforced turnovers turn into points," Hill said. "We shot ourselves in the foot again."
The Cougars made a run at the Owls during the last six minutes, cutting their lead to 77-73 with three minutes left on the clock on two foul shots by Sashon Bell. FCC had a chance to make it a two-point game with 2:13 to go but failed to convert a pair of foul shots and got no closer after that.
Saturday's loss was similar to FCC's setback to Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville on Jan. 20. The Cougars came up short in the game after rallying from 10 points down in the second half.
"It takes so much to get back in the game, then you don't have what you need to finish it off," Hill said. "We talk about this daily in practice, we talk about it in our speeches at halftime. We just didn't get it done. The better team won today."
Rashard Lewis and Josiah Jones each had 15 points for FCC. Jacob McIntosh had 12 points with 13 rebounds.
Cedric Hines led Harford with 22 points. McDonald had 19. Jon Warren had 18.
