McHENRY — Every time Allegany and Garrett College meet on the hardwood, it always seems to come down to the wire.
Saturday was no exception as the Trojans (3-3) rallied from being down 12 at halftime to win 97-94.
“A hard fought, ugly basketball game by both teams,” ACM head coach Tommie Reams said. “I thought Garrett played extremely hard, I thought we played extremely hard, I just thought both of us, we made too many mental errors. How many offensive rebounds did we give up? How many extra touches on turnovers that probably could be converted if either team makes the right pass at the right time?”
Trailing 58-46 at the break, Allegany scored seven unanswered points to open the second half.
Jaylen Brown hit a 3-pointer off Elijah Hall’s assist to cut the deficit to 66-64.
Brown finished with 19 points, six assists and four rebounds.
Over the next seven minutes, the Trojans crept back in and took its first lead since 33-32 on a pair of free throws from Christian Brown.
ACM took the lead for good on a steal and fadeaway from Darrien Ponder with 5:21 to play.
“Basically, there are no X’s and O’s that will fix a lack of heart, lack of toughness, lack of commitment to doing the right thing,” Reams said of the halftime message. “I challenged our young men to go from being young men into actual adulthood at halftime. You gotta find the fire within, coaches aren’t gonna make shots for you. We can draw up the most beautiful scheme in the world, it will not matter until you’re willing to sacrifice part of your person, your ego, your minutes, your whatever for the greater of the team.”
Ponder scored 16 points with five rebounds and a steal.
The Lakers (2-4) kept the margin within four points over the next couple minutes.
With 8.6 seconds to play, Garrett got within one at 95-94 on a triple by Lenny Smith.
Elijah Hall was immediately fouled and hit a pair at the line, then Garrett missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
“We’ve had a challenging couple weeks as a program for a variety of things,” Garrett head coach Matt McCullough said. “Our guys got a lot of fight in them. The way we came out showed that fight. We gave ourselves an opportunity to beat a team we think is as good as anybody in our league this year.”
The first half was also anyone’s game, featuring 13 lead changes and four ties.
After neither side led by more than two scores for the game’s opening 15 minutes, Garrett ended the half on an 18-9 run.
Smith scored nine of the 18 points while Keyonta Johnson added four points and three assists.
Johnson recorded a triple-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and two blocks, while Smith added 18 points, five rebounds and two assists.
The Lakers shot 11 of 22 from beyond the arc led by Cory Harper with five triples and 22 first half points.
“When the year started, we knew that we could shoot the ball really well,” McCullough said. “It’s not so much of a mindset to live and die on it because if you die on it, you don’t have much of a chance to compete. We’re looking for good shot opportunities and we got a lot from three tonight.”
Harper finished with a game-high 28 points, adding five rebounds and a block.
Donovahn Keyes hit four long balls and scored 14 in the half to finish with 21 points and three rebounds.
“We just failed to execute,” Reams said. “We talked about how good of a shooting team Garrett is, but we talked directly about Keyes and Harper in the scout the last three or four days. How we had to take care of them and we just failed to do so. I thought they did a great job of hitting the open shots, and once they got hot, it didn’t matter.”
Alex Byrd scored 24 points in the first half and finished with 27, adding 11 rebounds and a steal.
Justin Gilmore added 12 points for the Trojans.
Saturday continued the trend of down-to-the-wire games between Allegany and Garrett.
Since 2019, eight of the 11 matchups have been decided by six points or less.
“It’s amazing how Garrett and Allegany end up wire-to-wire all the time,” McCullough said. “Coach Reams and I were talking before the game, I think it’s five out of eight games before this went into overtime. It’s crazy how it works. Two teams that know each other well, know each other’s strengths and are trying to take things away.”
The Lakers host Blue Chips Prep on Monday at 6 p.m.
The Trojans head to Monroe University for the Jim Brown Classic on Saturday where they’ll play the College of Morris at 1 p.m. before facing Monroe on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Mustangs (4-3) won the previous meeting 103-86 on Nov. 16.
Earlier this month, Monroe announced a move from NJCAA to NCAA Division II next academic year.
“They’re primed for it,” Reams said. “Monroe has the facilities, they have the funding. It’ll help them with travel, currently, their schedule sends them all over the nation. Even though they’ll be in a D2, they’ll be in a much more regional schedule which will help them financially, but also allow them to compete right away.”