CUMBERLAND — Alejandro Garcia posted a double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) as Garrett College defeated host Allegany College of Maryland, 75-66, on Saturday night to open the Lakers’ season.
The Lakers continued play in the Diehl’s Ford Sales Classic, dropping a 96-67 contest to State University of New York-Niagara Sunday afternoon.
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GC head coach Matt McCullough said the Niagara contest provided an early season “reality check.”
“They’re a very talented team in a lot of ways; one of the better teams I’ve seen since I’ve been at Garrett,” said McCullough, who is starting his sixth season as coach. ” Coach (Bill) Beilein does a really good job with them. They were big, physical, played hard, had really good guard play and made shots. You don’t see many teams that have all those attributes.”
McCullough was impressed with how his young squad performed against an Allegany team that already had four games under its collective belt.
“We protected the ball well, had good offensive positioning, and we had a pretty good idea of what our identity would be on both ends of the court,” said McCullough.
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Rayden Triplett (15 points, six rebounds) and Noah Brazil (12 points) joined Garcia in double figures for Garrett in the win over ACM. Sefton Robinson added nine points off the bench while Julian Kelly and Sultan Numanovic contributed seven points each.
ACM’s Elijah Hall (five assists, four rebounds) tied Garcia with 18 points, but no other Trojan cracked double digits against Garrett.
The Lakers shot nearly 50% from the field (30-of-61), but kept Allegany in the game with 8-of-17 free-throw shooting.
ACM’s last lead came on a Landon Somerville jumper that made it 13-11 with 13:19 remaining in the first half.
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Garrett responded with a 7-0 run that included consecutive layups from Garcia and Brazil and a 3-pointer from Numanovic that made it 18-13.
ACM faced a 36-29 halftime deficit, but the Trojans pulled within 42-41 with 15:37 remaining on a Hall layup.
Garrett regained the momentum with a 6-0 surge that included hoops from Triplett and Brazil that made it 48-41.
“We didn’t panic when they cut into our lead,” said McCullough, whose team led by as many as 13 points down the stretch. “We continued to do good things on both sides of the ball.”
Niagara used a 12-1 run to break away from a 12-12 tie and take control of Sunday’s game. Five different Thunderwolves scored during the run, which included four points from Jaedon Hutchinson (15 points, five rebounds).
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The Lakers, who trailed 45-27 at the half, twice pulled within 14 points early in the second half. Niagara, however, used a 7-0 run that included five points from Jacob Humphrey, who scored a game-high 30 points, to build a 54-33 cushion.
Brazil led GC with a team-high 19 points while Tommy Manus III added 12 off the bench. Garcia had nine points and a team-high six rebounds while Kelly (six points) led the team with five assists.
Garrett hosts Community College of Allegheny County Wednesday at 7 p.m. before returning to ACM to play a pair of games against Community Christian (MI) College-Dearborn (Friday at 5 p.m.) and Cape Fear (NC) Community College (Saturday at 1 p.m.).
ACM (1-4) will host Cape Fear on Friday at 7 p.m. before playing another home game on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Community Christian-Dearborn.
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GC women fall to Niagara
CUMBERLAND — Azriel Hall scored a team-high 22 points as State University of New York-Niagara defeated the Lakers Sunday afternoon in GC’s season-opening contest.
Niagara led wire-to-wire, building 5-0, 14-6, and 28-14 leads in the opening quarter.
The Thunderwolves finished the first half with a 15-3 run in which Allison Milleville had five points and a quintet of Thunderwolves scored as Niagara built a 46-24 cushion.
“We showed a lot of heart,” said GC head coach JT Lewis. “We could have rolled over after the first half and not competed in the second half, but we played hard the whole way.”
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Sophomore Carly Wilt led Garrett with a team-high 22 points while Jameriah Butler contributed 14 for the Lakers.
The Lady Lakers host the Waynesburg University (PA) junior varsity squad Thursday at 5 p.m.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
