Prince George’s Tops #9 Northland In National Championship First Round

The Prince George's Community College women's basketball team earned their first national tournament win on Wednesday, March 9^th in Rochester, Minnesota as the #8 Owls topped #9 Northland Community & Technical College, 57-48 in the first game of the 2022 National Tournament. 

Freshman Janiah Williams scored the first bucket of the tournament after teams traded misses to open the contest and it was the Williams show the rest of the way. She scored 10 of the Owls 12 points in the first period as the Owls trailed by one, 13-12 after the first ten minutes. Williams then hit on two-of-two attempts from beyond the arc in the second period, including one at the buzzer to send Prince George's into halftime with a 22-21 lead.

Williams led all scorers with 16 points at the break and was nearing a double-double with 8 rebounds. Freshman Alicia Jones added 4 points for the Owls at the half while Tori Tolson had 2.

Prince George's was able to further distance themselves from the Pioneers in the third period as Vanessa Schwarzmann entered the mix offensively for the Owls, recording her first points of the day during the quarter. Schwarzmann connected on three attempts from beyond the arc and went two-of-two from the free throw line while the Owls outscored Northland 19-8 to open the second half and grow their lead to twelve, 41-29.

Prince George's took the largest lead of the game, a 15-point command over Northland with 9:24 left to go after another Williams made three-pointer. The Pioneers responded with a made three of their own and six minutes later found themselves down by just eight, 51-43 with 3:26 remaining. The Owls forced Northland to miss six of their shots down the stretch while Prince George's connected on just enough of their free throws to keep the Pioneers out of reach, ending in a 57-48 Owls victory. The win gave Prince George's their very first National Tournament win in the Owls' program history.

The two-time NJCAA Player of the Week Janiah Williams finished with a new season-high in scoring with a 28-point, 21-rebound double-double while also adding six blocked shots. Despite Schwarzmann's cold start she ended with 13 points, 5 rebounds. Jones finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals while Tolson rounded out the scoring for Prince George's with 6 points while also collecting 8 boards and dishing out 4 assists.

Prince George's will now face the Region 12 and Great Lakes District Champion, Owens Community College who enters the tournament as the #1 overall seed on Thursday, March 10^th at 3 PM ET. The Express spent most of the year atop the NJCAA weekly rankings as the number one program in the country out of Perrysburg, Ohio. As one of the top-four seeds in this year's tournament, the Express earned a first-round bye and will be facing the Owls for their first matchup.

Prince George's has already defied the odds under a first-year head coach coming off of a year with no basketball due to COVID-19 and will look to continue the upset story when the #8 Owls take the court again in Rochester, Minnesota tomorrow.

All games of the tournament will be live streamed and are available with a fee through the NJCAA Network. Viewers can visit the schedule of live events here.