Prince George's Men's Basketball Second Half Furious Comeback Falls Short In Overtime In NJCAA Division III Region XX Championship Game

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Despite a valiant second-half comeback attempt by Prince George's Commmunity College, Montgomery College earned a 98-85 victory in overtime in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III Region XX Men's Basketball Championship Game on Sunday.

Alex Morales (Patterson, N.J.) paced the Owls (21-9) with 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Jaylin Johnson (Detroit, Mich.) also registered 20 points along with six assists while Kennith Ford (Forestville, Md.), who keyed the second-half comeback, recorded 17 points and Mykal Johnson (Landover, Md.) chipped in 12 points in the loss. Jaylin Johnson and Ford were named to the all-tournament team.

Andre Hodo powered the Raptors (20-9) with 27 points to earn tournament MVP honors while Chris Johnson posted 18 points, Ramel Davidson recorded 16 points and Isaac Akwara chipped in 11 points in the winning effort.

Despite Prince George's using a 32-18 run in the second half to take thte lead, Montgomery used a strong start to overtime to come away with the victory and advance to the next round of the NJCAA Division III Tournament.

With the game tied at 77 in overtime, Akwara nailed a trey at 3:36 and Johnson followed with a long-distance shot 50 seconds later to give the Raptors a six-point lead at 83-77 and went on for the 98-85 victory.

Trailing by 14 points at the break, the Owls scored 32 of the first 50 points of the stanza to take their first lead of the night. Ford keyed the run with 14 points, including nailing three-straight triples during one stretch.

After Prince George's took a 54-53 lead, the two teams traded the lead back and forth the rest of the way. In the final minute each team had a shot-clock violation and the Raptors had one last shot at the buzzer, but could not convert.

Sparked by a pair of triples by Isaac Akwara, the Raptors scored 18 of the first 19 points of the game in the first seven minutes and 23 seconds to grab an 18-1 advantage.

With Montgomery holding a 32-14 lead with 5:38 left in the half, the Owls rolled off nine of the next 12 points to trim the margin to 35-23 with 2:23 until the break.

Mykal Johnson started the spurt with a layup at 4:51 before Jaylin Johnson scored in the lane at 4:32. After Hodo converted a traditional 3-point play at 4:05, Mykal Johnson drained a 3- pointer at 3:30 and Morales capped the run with a basket in the paint at 2:23.

The two teams traded points with Jaylin Johnson scoring in the lane with 51 seconds left to go into the locker room with Prince George's trailing 39-27.

The Owls used a strong start to the second half aided by six 3-pointers to take thte lead, but the Raptors were able to overcome Prince George's in the extra session to earn the win.

Dexter Turner (Washington, D.C.) added nine points, including two clutch treys in the second-half rally.

Prince George's was the three-time defending NJCAA Division III Region XX champion coming into the tournament. The Owls won 20 games in a season for the first time since 2013-14.