LADY HAWKS AVENGE LOSS IN REMATCH; HCC MEN SOAR TO VICTORY
The Hagerstown women's basketball team dominated the game from the tip all the way up through the 3rd quarter. They were firing on all cylinders and were looking at one more period until they could seize a feel-good victory against a familiar foe they lost to just two weeks prior in Harford CC. That is when the unthinkable happened. The Fighting Owls opened the final quarter with 23 unanswered points and took a 43-29 HCC lead and morphed it into a 52-43 lead of their own with just over 4 minutes remaining. The Lady Hawks were stunned at what had just transpired. They found themselves down 9 points and had little room for error. That is when sophomore captain, Susie Rodriguez, went to work. Following an Andrea Elder "and-1" bucket and some solid defense, Rodriguez found herself open beyond the arc and nailed the 3. Freshman Keyani Saunders made a key free throw down the stretch and pulled the game within 2 points. After drawing an offensive foul on visiting Harford, HCC completed the comeback when Amelia Robins became doubled and found a wipe open Rodriguez across court who drained her second 3 pointer in the span of a minute and a half to put HCC up 53-52 with 42 seconds to go. Elder finished out the game with two clutch points from the charity stripe to close the door on Harford by a score of 55-52. The HCC women now turn their attention to a non-conference matchup this Thursday, January 30th when they travel to Penn State-York to take on the Nittany Lions. The game is scheduled to start at 6PM.
The HCC Men's Basketball game was a completely different story. After the visiting Fighting Owls came out with some juice to begin the game, the Hawks quickly matched that energy and took the lead 20-19 with 6:26 to go in the first half and never trailed again after that. Sophomore shooting guard Tristan Cook paced the Hawks with 18 points and had 13 of those in the first half. Freshman big man, Tamareion "Tree" Roundtree, also added 12 points including a thunderous breakaway dunk that shook Jim Brown court in the last two minutes. When the final horn sounded, the Hawks came away with a 72-57 much needed win to take the season sweep over Harford. The Hawks now look to continue their winning ways as they have a rematch against rival Allegany College of Maryland this Saturday, February 1st at 3PM following the women's game. Please consider following along via livestream on ACM's Facebook page this weekend.
GO HAWKS!! #WelcomeToTheNest