Published: February 29, 2008 09:58 am         

Late surge sends ACM past Potomac

Trojans defeat Catamounts, 72-55

HAGERSTOWN - The fifth-seeded Allegany College of Maryland Trojans got off to a fast start and then overcame an almost nine-minute mid-game drought with a late surge to defeat fourth-seeded Potomac State College 72-55 in an NJCAA Region XX Division I first-round game on Thursday night at the Hagerstown ARCC.

The victory evens the Trojans' record at 14-14 and keeps alive their hopes for a fourth straight championship. Potomac State closes its season with a 17-8 record.

Allegany will face top-seeded Chesapeake in the semifinals on Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be out to avenge a tough 96-95 loss to the 25-3 Skipjacks back on Jan. 25 at Wye Mills. The other semifinal game will have second-seeded host Hagerstown (22-7) facing third-seeded Garrett (16-10) at 7 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m.

Sophomore center Calvin Lee scored a game-high 24 points to lead four Allegany players in double figures and hauled down 12 rebounds. Ru White added 13 points, George DeGroat had 12 and eight rebounds, and Ryan Burts contributed 10 points.

White also had four steals and Terrence Green had three to lead the Allegany defense that forced 20 turnovers in holding the Potomac State offense to 38 points below its season scoring average. The Trojans also had eight blocked shots with Lee, DeGroat and Green getting two each.

Potomac State was led by Hosea Berkley with 15 points, and Eli Crawford and Nader Shehadeh 10 each.

Allegany jumped out to a 7-1 lead on a White three-pointer and it took the Catamounts almost five minutes to get their first field goal on an inside move by Berkley. A Burts trey and a Green rebound follow had the Trojans up 18-7 with seven minutes elapsed.

A White jumper had Allegany on top 32-17 with 6:29 on the clock, but the Trojans went scoreless the rest of the half. The Catamounts took advantage of the cold spell to cut the lead to only five points (32-27) at the break.

Ryland Newman hit a three-pointer to start the second half for Potomac State and the Trojans didn't end their drought until White hit another short jumper at the 17:46 mark. The Catamounts tied it at 40-40 with 12:36 left, but were never able to take the lead.

Lee was not ready to have his season end and took charge inside. The 6-foot-8 sophomore center put Allegany back on top with a rebound putback and then scored on a feed from DeGroat.

After Shehadeh connected on a trey for the Catamounts. Lee converted two foul shots to start an 11-point run that had Allegany ahead 55-43 with 7:50 left. Former Allegany High School player David Latimer made a backdoor lay-up and hit a three-pointer in the surge.

Potomac State cut the margin to eight points at 55-47, but Lee responded with two more buckets to make it 59-47 with 4:08. The Trojans scored the final nine points and a DeGroat dunk put an exclamation point on the win.

"Sometimes when you look down the court and see the other team's size you think you're going to have an easy game and this was not an easy game," said Allegany head coach Mike Baker. "We didn't rebound early and they out-rebounded us 14-10 in the first half. We also went to too much one-on-one and only taking one pass.

"Calvin and George wanted to stay in the tournament and showed some sophomore maturity in the second half. We started to dominate the boards and played better in the last 10 minutes."