HAWK MEN SPLIT AT 23rd ANNUAL JIM BROWN CLASSIC
The Hagerstown Men's Basketball team celebrated their court's namesake this past weekend by partaking in their yearly, post-Thanksgiving hoops tradition. The Jim Brown Classic brings alumni from far and wide, and always is a great opportunity to take in a few days of quality sports competition. The Titans of County College of Morris, the Broncos of Monroe University, and the Trojans of Allegany College of Maryland joined the Hawks to round out the teams participating.
Hagerstown's first test took place on Saturday when they took on district rival Monroe in a rematch of their November 14th bout. The Hawks came out scalding hot and took control of the game from the onset. They led by as high as 11 points in the first half before the Mustangs fought back to make it a 6-point game at the break. The visiting team carried their momentum into the second stanza as they proceeded to outscore the Hawks 40-22 and pried victory from the jaws of defeat. However, a final score of 73-61 overshadows a few solid performances by Hagerstown. Sophomore forward Mason Sword continued his consistent season by leading the team with 18 points, including going 4-6 from beyond the arc, while Tristan Cook, Najeh Allen, and Cam Horton contributed 8 points each. It may not have been the result they envisioned, but they had to put the loss behind them quickly as they were slated to take on County College of Morris the next day (December 1st).
Their second game of the weekend started off similarly to the first one as Hagerstown seized control from the tip-off. The Titans did counterpunch and proceeded to go on a 13-5 run to pull the game even, 33-33. But the second half proved that the Hawks were the stronger team, winning the game by a score of 72-64. Seven players scored at least 7 points for HCC including Sophomore guard Deondre Mitchell who led the way with 19. Freshman guard Xavier Pickett had three timely 3-pointers down the stretch (3-4 3FG) and Allen/Horton added 10 rebounds to help the Hawks maintain control in the final 10 minutes.
The Hawks now set their sights on another familiar in-conference foe in Prince George's CC. They will make the trek to Largo, MD to take on Owls this Wednesday, December 4th at 7PM following the women's game. Fly, Hawks, Fly!!!
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For Full stats visit https://athletics.hagerstowncc.edu/sports/mbkb/2024-25/boxscores/20241130_xs4q.xml?view=boxscore for the Monroe game and https://athletics.hagerstowncc.edu/sports/mbkb/2024-25/boxscores/20241201_j7g2.xml?view=boxscore for the CCM game.