Steve Luse
LARGO — The Allegany College of Maryland Trojans used great team play, defense and rebounding to hand top-seeded Cecil College its first loss of the season with a 75-65 victory in the Maryland JUCO Conference Men’s Tournament championship game on Sunday at Prince George’s Community College.
The victory ended a string of five straight tournament titles for Cecil and sends Allegany into this week’s NJCAA Region XX Division I Tournament with a 25-5 record and 15-game winning streak. Cecil entered the game with a 29-0 record and ranked No. 1 in the nation in NJCAA Division II. The Seahawks had beaten the Trojans 10 straight dating back to 2002 and included a 72-66 win in their regular season meeting on Dec. 6, 2008, in Cumberland.
“This is a great day for the Allegany College of Maryland to bring two state championships back to Cumberland,” said ACM coach Mike Baker. “Cecil is a very good team with great athletes. Our defense did a great job and I can’t tell you how happy I was about how we hit the boards. They were settling for threes and we held them to only three in the first half. We are a much better team than when we played Cecil in December.”
Jeff Early survived another physical pounding and finished with a game-high 24 points and 19 rebounds. The 6-foot-2 freshman guard from Lexington, Va., hit on 9-of-19 shots from the floor, including a pair of crowd-pleasing dunks off steals in the first half. He converted 6-of-8 foul shots.
“The last time we played them they made too many threes at the start and this time we got out on them,” said Early. “Defense won the game and we had other people stepping up.”
Also scoring in double figures for the Trojans were Terrence Green with 13 points and Ru White with 12.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Steven Shepp scored only seven points, but had a huge three-pointer and some clutch foul shots to hold off Cecil late in the game. The 6-foot-1 guard from Woodbridge, Va., directed an Allegany offense that only had seven turnovers with just one in the second half. He also contributed six rebounds, six assists and two steals.
“I really like the family factor we have and we really play together as one,” said Shepp. “I think everybody on the team should share the MVP award and not just one player.”
The Allegany defense forced 12 turnovers and didn’t allow many easy buckets as the usually potent Cecil shooters made only 22 of 73 field goal attempts (30.1 percent) and 10 of 29 three-pointers. The Trojans out-bounded the Seahawks 51-36.
Allegany jumped out to a 5-0 lead and was up 12-4 after an Early steal and dunk at the 10-minute mark. The lead reached double digits with a three-pointer by White that made it 19-9 with 8:54 left in the first half. Early’s second jam gave the Trojans a 27-14 bulge at the 5:18 mark.
Cecil answered with a seven-point run to slice the deficit to six points. The half ended with the Trojans clinging to a 31-27 lead.
Cecil was still within four points after the first four minutes of the second half when White came through with a tip-in and three-pointer for 40-31 advantage at 13:59. Cecil closed to within four (56-52) on a pair of Will Sanborn treys with just under five minutes on the clock.
Early responded with a pair of drives to start a 11-2 run that was aided by an intentional foul call against Sanborn. Shepp hit a long three-pointer as the clock clock was about to expire for the 67-54 lead with three minutes left. Early converted two foul shots and Shepp made four to hold off the Seahawks.
“They gave us a lot of trouble with their athleticism,” said Cecil coach Bill Lewit. “They play strong enough defense and out-rebounded us. Jeff Early is the most spectacular player I have seen all season with great basketball instincts.”
The Region XX Tournament will be held this weekend in Hagerstown and top-seeded Allegany will face the winner of Thursday’s play-in game between Potomac State and Frederick on Saturday at 7 p.m. Host Garrett and Hagerstown will play in the other semifinal game at 5 o’clock.
