Prince George’s Upsets Northampton In Coach Harris’ Debut As Head Coach

The Prince George's Community College men's basketball team had some familiar faces appear on the bench Saturday, November 5^th as the Owls played host to Northampton Community College to open the 2022 season. Among those were 6 returning sophomores from the Owls 2021 Region 20 Championship squad but missing was former assistant Terrell Harris who was instead standing for the entirety of the game as he made his debut as head coach of the program.

Harris, who was elevated to the post of head coach in late June, was tasked with facing Northampton's Spartans who entered the season ranked 13^th in the NJCAA Division 3 preseason poll to begin his tenure. An intense contest which featured 10 ties and 14 lead changes ultimately came down to free throws at the end. The Owls hit just enough down the stretch while the Spartans, playing in front of a loud crowd in Novak Field House, were unable to keep up on their chances from the charity stripe as Prince George's pulled out a 76-72 victory.

Prince George's starting lineup consisted of four returners from last year's team in Deonte Cooke, Dajuan McMillan, Anthony Perry, and Andreas Muten. Joining them was sophomore transfer Elijah Crawford who played 30 minutes for the Owls in their opener.

The Owls entered halftime trailing 42-40 in a back-and-forth battle which saw them lead by as many as 8 at the 13:32 mark but wound up giving the Spartans their largest lead of 4 with 42 seconds remaining in the half before McMillan cut it down to 2 with a pair of made free throws. McMillan was the team's leading scorer at the break with 10 followed by Cooke with 9.

Neither team led by more than 4 points in the second half with each program trading baskets until the final minutes when free throws became the name of the game. Both squads struggled from the line in the final 2:14 as Prince George's connected on just 6 of 10 attempts but were able to hold the Spartans defensively who shot 0 for 4 from the field during the same stretch and hit just 3 of 8 attempts from the stripe. Crawford had two of his game-high four blocks in a five-second span with under a minute to play to help keep the Spartans off the board.

McMillan split a pair from the line with 13 seconds remaining to put the Owls in front 74-72 and followed up with a steal which led to two more points on a perfect 2 for 2 trip from Anthony Simmons with under 10 ticks left. The Spartans last three-point attempt was unsuccessful and led to the Owls first season opening win since 2019 while dealing Northampton their first loss of the season as they drop to 2-1.

McMillan finished as the Owls leading scorer with 20 points followed by 12 from both Cooke and Perry. Crawford ended with 11 points and 8 boards to go along with his 4 blocks during his debut in an Owls uniform 

Following the win coach Harris described himself as being "like a kid on Christmas Eve" leading up to tip-off for his first game as a college head coach. Harris stated, "I felt like we had a great opportunity to battle against a tough opponent but at halftime we knew we had given up too many second chance points." Citing last year's season opening loss on the road to Northampton when the Owls gave up a 15-point lead at the half, Harris encouraged his team to step up on the defensive side of the ball which proved pivotal down the stretch in the victory.

The Owls are back in Novak Field House on Tuesday, November 8^th for a matchup against Washington Adventist with a 7 pm tip-off.