Prince George's Men's Basketball Qualifies For Maryland JUCO Tournament

Prince George's Men's Basketball Qualifies For Maryland JUCO Tournament

2018 MD JUCO Tournament Bracket | MD JUCO Men's Basketball Tournament Preview | MD JUCO Women's Basketball Tournament Preview

LARGO, Md. – The Prince George's Community College men's basketball team will be the eighth seed and begins its quest to repeat as Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference (MD JUCO) Men's Basketball Tournament champions against top seed Harford Community College on Friday. Game time is 6 p.m. at Novak Field House on the campus of Prince George's Community College. 

Tickets for tournament games is $8. If you cannot make it to the tournament, the battle of the Owls will be streamed live through PGCCOwls YouTube channel and live stats will also be available.

The two teams will face off twice in a 10-day span after a thrilling overtime game in Largo on Feb. 7. Despite sophomore Mykal Johnson (Seat Pleasant, Md./Charles H. Flowers) scoring the tying basket at the end of regulation to send the tilt to overtime, Harford downed Prince George's 98-93. Johnson powered the Owls with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Gus Stone (Baltimore, Md./North County) added 22 points, sophomore Kennith Ford (Forestville, Md./National Collegiate) posted 21 points and freshman Shiloh Beale (Waldorf, Md./St. Charles) tied a career high with 19 points in the loss.

Stone leads the team with 18.1 points per game while Johnson ranks second with 17.1 points per game. Johnson, who also paces the team with 3.3 assists per game and ranks second with 6.4 rebounds per game, enters the tournament needing 24 points to surpass the 1,000-point plateau for his career. Ford is third on the team with 14.9 points per game. Sophomore James Hagins (Roanoke, Va./William Fleming) leads the team in both rebounds (7.6 pg.) and blocks (2.2 pg.) and ranks fourth in scoring (8.4 ppg.).

In the other quarterfinals in the Prince George's-Harford side of the bracket, fourth-seed Baltimore City Community College (17-10, 11-3 MD JUCO) will battle fifth seed Montgomery College (20-6, 10-4 MD JUCO) at 4 p.m. with the two winners meeting on Saturday in the semifinals at 6 p.m. In the other quarterfinals on Friday, third seed Frederick Community College (21-3, 12-2 MD JUCO) squares off against No. 6 Cecil College (10-13, 7-7 MD JUCO) at 12 p.m. and second seed Allegany College of Maryland (23-2, 12-2 MD JUCO) battles No. 7 Howard Community College (11-13, 6-8 MD JUCO) at 2 p.m. Those two winners will advance to the semifinals at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The Owls have won the Maryland JUCO Tournament four times (1971-72, 1979-80, 1980-81, 2016-17). This marks the second-straight year Prince George's and Harford have played in the MD JUCO Tournament after Prince George's won a semifinal matchup 70-68 on Feb. 18, 2017.

Isaiah Boggs paced Harford in the regular season meeting with 26 points while Martin Kelly, Jr. added 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Khalil Williams-Diggins (15 points), Malik Jones (14 points) and DeZ Brown (10 points, 13 rebounds) in the overtime thriller. Williams-Diggins leads the team with 14.0 points per game while Jones is second with 13.5 points per game and Karon Green is third with 12.7 points per game.