Unbeaten Hawks overwhelm Allegany

Story By Brayden Leather, Hearld-Mail Sports

The Hagerstown Community College women's basketball team continued its hot start to the season, improving to 4-0 with a 92-27 rout of Allegany College of Maryland on Wednesday in the Maryland JUCO Conference opener for both teams at HCC.

Chelsea Cover scored a game-high 25 points and Malerie Wratchford had 18 points for the Hawks.

"My teammates helped get me the ball, and with a game like that, you almost have to play unselfish," Cover said. "The way our team played unselfish when needed stood out. We haven't really had a game where we had to do that, but I feel like we moved the ball well, shared the ball, passed the ball and I feel like we did well today."

HCC led 24-14 after the first quarter before blowing away the Trojans (1-3) in the second as they built a 57-16 halftime lead. Cheska Knable scored seven points off the bench as the the Hawks outscored Allegany 33-2 in the period.

"Everybody contributed tonight," Hawks coach Bernie Semler said. "Usually Allegany is a powerhouse but this year they're trying to build up from zero."

HCC picked up right where it left off to begin the second half on a layup by Sarah Meiklejohn followed by another two-pointer from Wratchford. Early in the quarter, Morgan Henderson made a two-point jump shot, extending the lead to 63-16, marking all 10 players on the stat sheet with a basket.

"Our defense worked really well," said Janae Holman, who scored nine points in the win. "I think that is what helped us win this game and our past games. ... I think we work well this year."

A Henderson layup pushed the lead to 80-21 early in the fourth quarter. Later, a Keller layup made it 90-25.

Rokhyatou Sidibe led the Hawks in rebounds with nine. Tori Fowlkes, Hiyanna Keller and Henderson each added eight points in the win.