Prince George's Men's Basketball Looks To Win Fifth Maryland JUCO Title In Final Year Of The Tournament

LARGO, Md. – The Prince George's Community College men's basketball team begins its quest for its fifth Maryland JUCO Tournament title against No. 5 Cecil College on Friday at 4 p.m. This will be the 46th and final edition of the Maryland JUCO Tournament when the men's tournament tips off on Friday from Hagerstown Community College.

Tickets for tournament games is $8. If you cannot make it to the tournament, Hagerstown is providing live stats and live stream of both the men's and women's tournament.

In the other quarterfinals on Prince George's side of the bracket, top-seed Baltimore City Community College (19-7, 12-2 MD JUCO) will battle eighth-seeded College of Southern Maryland (11-14, 7-7 MD JUCO) at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The winners of the Owls-Seahawks and Panthers-Hawks will meet in the semifinals on Saturday at 7 p.m. In the top portion of the bracket, No. 3 Harford Community College (15-10, 10-4 MD JUCO) will face No. 6 Garrett College (15-8, 8-6 MD JUCO) to start Friday at 12 p.m. and will be followed by No.2 Allegany College of Maryland (15-9, 11-3 MD JUCO) against No. 7 Frederick Community College (16-8, 7-7 MD JUCO) at 2 p.m. The winners of these two games will square off in the semifinals on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Owls (19-4, 10-4 MD JUCO) are led by sophomore Alex Morales (Paterson, N.J./Manchester Regional), who fuels the team with 19.3 points, 11.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 3.9 steals per game. Freshman Tunde Schriver (Washington, D.C./H.D. Woodson) ranks second on the team with 18.1 points per game while sophomore Dexter Turner (Washington, D.C./Idea Public Charter) leads the team with 7.3 assists per game and ranks third with 10.1 points per game.

Prince George's lost to Cecil 75-61 in North East, Md., on January 30. Sophomore Jalen Robinson (Bowie, Md./Bowie) paced the Owls with a career-high 14 points while Morales (12 points) and Scrivner (10 points) also found double figures in the game.

With a win, the Owls could face Baltimore City or the College of Southern Maryland in the semifinals. The Largo team defeated the Panthers 71-55 on January 16 on the road thanks to 19 points and 10 rebounds by Morales while the Owls suffered their only home loss of the season against the Hawks with a 105-100 defeat on January 4 despite 27 points from Morales.

The Owls have won the Maryland JUCO Tournament four times (1971-72, 1979-80, 1980-81, 2016-17). Morales, Turner, Moetaz Ashkar (Landover Hills, Md./Parkdale) and Dariel Medina (Silver Spring, Md./James H. Blake) were all members of the 2017 Maryland JUCO Tournament chamionship team. Morales averaged 19.7 points and 13.7 rebounds per game in the three games of the tournament and posted 20 points and 17 rebounds in the championship game against Baltimore City including scoring the game-winning basket in the waning seconds to give Prince George's the 63-62 win and its fourth tournament crown.

Interim head coach William West has guided the Owls to a 19-4 overall mark and a 10-4 record in league play to notch the squad's first 10-win season in league play since 2012-13. West and his squad will also be the No. 1 seed at the NJCAA Region XX Division III Tournament hosted by Prince George's on February 23-24.