HCC turns over ball, game

February 14, 2008|By JACK HILL

If only it was a 38-minute game.

Garrett Community College outscored Hagerstown Community College 10-0 in the final two minutes on Wednesday to pull out a come-from-behind 60-55 win in a Maryland JuCo Conference women's basketball game at the HCC athletic complex.

"I thought it was a really hard-fought game," HCC coach Marlys Palmer said. "When they switched their defense to man-to-man, we didn't handle the pressure well. We made 27 turnovers tonight. We made quite a bit of turnovers in the final two minutes. We didn't take care of the ball."

The loss ended HCC's 26-game, home-court winning streak -- which spanned over three seasons -- in its final home game of the season. The Hawks finished 11-1 at home, one game short of a second straight undefeated run at the athletic complex.

HCC (22-3, 11-1) also suffered its first conference loss of the season, preventing the Hawks from clinching at least a tie for the league's regular season title. HCC has lost three of its last four games after winning the first 21 games of the season.

HCC closes the season on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Cecil.

HCC, which held a 25-23 lead at the half, outscored the Lakers 17-6 in the first 5 1/2 minutes of the second half to increase the advantage to 42-29.

However, in a matter of three minutes, Garrett reduced the deficit to 46-45.

HCC re-established a cushion by moving the lead to 55-50 by the two-minute mark, setting up the Lakers' final 10-point flurry to claim the victory.

Mindy Sharp had game highs of 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots for Garrett (16-3, 8-2). Blair Bradley scored all 15 of her points in the second half, while Tegra Hillman added nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Alicia Myers scored 15 points, Shuashanna Faulkner collected 10 points and seven rebounds and Alex Baker got 10 points for HCC. Latoya Buckner added nine rebounds and three blocked shots, while Teonna Jewell had seven assists.

"We were trying to force the action in the beginning of the game," Garrett coach Theo Garland said. "We were trying to be in a hurry and it hurt us. We went back to calling plays and settling down a little bit. After that, our offense stepped up."

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