Published: November 25, 2009 12:34 am      

Trojans lock down Lakers for 64-51 conference win

Freshman Jay Burke sparks ACM with team-high 15 points, 12 boards

CUMBERLAND — The Allegany College of Maryland men’s basketball team held the Garrett College Lakers scoreless over the final 10 minutes and 6 seconds of the first half in building a 39-24 lead and overcame some sloppy play in the second half to defeat the Lakers 64-51 on Tuesday night at Bob Kirk Arena.

It was the Maryland JUCO Conference opener for the Trojans and lifts their overall record to 5-2. Garrett falls to 5-3 overall and is 1-1 in the conference.

Freshman forward Jay Burke came off the bench to provide a spark for Allegany and finished with a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman point guard Derrell Armstrong contributed 12 points, six assists and three steals.

Also scoring in double figures for the Trojans was Marcel Chesson with 11 points. Troy Vasco had 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Garrett was led by sophomore Shawn Greenfield, who hit three three-pointers and all four of his foul shots for 13 points. Chris Hilliard had 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

While Allegany was doing a good job in not allowing Garrett many easy shots, the Trojans turned the ball over 24 times with 14 of the giveaways after the break. They also had 20 personal fouls with two, Burke and Chesson, fouling out.

Allegany had a 50-35 advantage in rebounding and hit on 28-of-58 (48.2 percent) of its shots from the floor, while Garrett made only 17-of-56 attempts (30.3 percent). The Trojans didn’t get many trips to the foul line and converted only 2-of-6 attempts, while the Lakers were 13-for-21 at the charity stripe.

“Defensively we played pretty well in the first half and actually held them to less points in the second half,” said Allegany coach Mike Baker. “In the second half our offense was stagnant and broke down. They started to overplay us after being in a zone the first half and we weren’t moving to get shots or setting picks.”

Garrett jumped out to an 8-0 lead on a rebound follow by Hilliard, a three-point play by Joe Dubuche and Greenfield’s first three-pointer.

After Vasco put Allegany on the board at the 17:27 mark, Jordan Gipson hit a trey to make it 11-2. The Lakers were still up by nine points (14-5) with four minutes elapsed after a three-point play by Gipson.

Armstrong connected on a three-pointer to get the Allegany offense rolling and the Trojans cut the lead to two points (19-17) on a Chesson fastbreak at the 12:20 mark.

Greenfield hit from long range to put the Garrett lead back to five points, but Jonathan Rigg responded with a trey for Allegany.

Vladimir Vukovic scored inside to put Garrett ahead 24-20 with 10:06 left in the half and it ended up being the Lakers last two points until after the break.

Chris Gee nailed a three to start a 19-point Allegany run and Burke gave the Trojans their first lead at 25-24 at the 9:36 mark. The lead reached double figures at 35-24 on a three-pointer by Burke at the 3:02 mark.

A short jumper by Burke, who had 13 of his points in the first half, gave Allegany its 39-24 halftime lead with 41 clicks left.

Allegany had its biggest lead at 47-30 after an Armstrong drive

Garrett sliced the lead to eight points (55-47) on two fouls shots and a three-pointer by Greenfield. Allegany answered with a jumper and dunk by Chesson and a drive by Malik Witten, and Trojans were able to get the lead in double figures down the stretch.

“I didn’t do a very good job of coaching. I had some bad rotation and we were stagnant on offense. I totally take the blame,” said Garrett coach Dennis Gibson. “The kids played hard and play pretty good defense. We’re very young and we’re going to get better.”

Allegany will be playing in the Jim Brown Thanksgiving Classic this weekend and will be playing Cecil on Saturday at 5 p.m., and Monroe from The Bronx (N.Y.) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Garrett will be playing at Baltimore City next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Contact Steve Luse at sluse@times-news.com.