KEYSER, W.Va. — WVU Potomac State College trailed by 20 in the first half and 17 early in the second half.
The Catamounts (10-8, 8-3 NJCAA Region 20) rallied all the way back, taking the lead midway through and making key defensive plays down the stretch to complete the rally, defeating Allegany College 88-86 on Saturday.
“They came out and kicked our butts, punched us in the mouth,” Potomac State head coach Ryan Streets said. “Luckily, we came out in the second half and responded which I’m proud of. We had some adversity, usually we folded in the past. This time, we answered the bell and I thought we responded well.”
The Trojans (8-11, 6-5 Region 20) led 50-33 with 19:05 left in the second half.
“Showed some real toughness and real resilience,” ACM head coach Tommie Reams said. “We still have a lot of work to do, in terms of the overall game plan, tip your cap to Pot State and those guys. I thought Daniel Charlot, (Peter) Quaye and number 23 (Yanis Youbi) really did a great job on the glass. That really swung the tide, they had 18 offensive rebounds and that’s where you can really put this game at.”
Over the next 10 minutes, the Catamounts went on a 35-17 run led by Charlot, who scored 12 points during the run with five rebounds.
He scored three points in the first half, but had 20 in the second half to finish with a game-high 23 and 12 rebounds.
“I just knew I had to pick it up (in the) second half,” Charlot said. “We had one more to go down by 14, we needed to step up, grab rebounds, score points.”
Camren Wilkes drew a foul and hit a pair at the line with 8:55 that put the Catamounts ahead 68-67 for the first time in the game.
Wilkes finished with 19 points, four rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block.
The next nine minutes featured eight lead changes and six ties.
It was a one-point game for most of it and neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way.
“We had really good guard balance in the first half,” Reams said. “I thought Jaylen Brown and Brandon Anderson were excellent for us. I thought when Anderson took that violent elbow to the face, he was immediately concussed. That really changed us I thought, we became very one dimensional at the guard position and that’s where Pot State was able to swing the game.”
In the final 90 seconds, Wilkes produced the two biggest defensive plays of the game.
Andre Grant pickpocketed a steal, then Alex Byrd recorded one on the other end for the Trojans.
The ball became loose and Wilkes won the dive for possession.
After a timeout, Grant drew a foul and hit a pair of free throws to put Potomac State in front 85-83.
“I’m not really known for my defense, so I knew coach told me he needs a stop from me,” Wilkes said. “So I had to pick it up. I’m not known for defense, so I had to make a play.”
Grant scored 18 points with three steals off the bench.
On the ensuing ACM possession, Wilkes blocked a 3-pointer.
Jaylen Brown drew a foul and knocked down both free throws to even the score at 85 with 38.6 seconds remaining.
Brown finished with a team-high 22 points, adding eight assists, five rebounds and two steals.
A fight for the rebound on the ensuing possession led to a foul, sending Charlot to the charity stripe with 9.9 seconds to play.
After Charlot made the first, he missed the second.
The rebound was tipped out of bounds by the Trojans, giving Potomac State possession and sending Wilkes to the line where he made both shots.
Down 88-86 with 2.5 seconds left, Allegany’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was offline.
While the final nine minutes were anyone’s game, the game’s opening 20 were dominated by the Trojans.
The story of the first half was that Allegany wasn’t missing while Potomac State struggled to find the net.
The Trojans shot around 60 to 70% from the field for nearly the entire half.
Alex Byrd scored 19 points in the first half and shot 6 of 7 from the field.
“I thought he played unbelievably well within himself,” Reams said. “I’ve talked to him a lot about the importance of hunting elite shots. In the first half, he wasn’t forcing it. He was letting the game come to him, he was running the right cuts, trusting the offensive scheme and trusting his teammates. And his teammates showed the trust back in him.”
No one else on either team scored more than eight points in the half.
On the other side, the Catamounts struggled, shooting 11 of 29 (38%) from the field compared to ACM’s 17 of 30 (57%) in the half.
Potomac State hovered between 20 and 30% from the field for most of the half, and trailed by as many as 20 points at 42-22.
The Trojans led 47-33 at halftime, connecting on 7 of 12 (58%) 3-pointers.
Damian Thompson scored 10 points with three assists and two rebounds for the Catamounts while ACM’s Justin Turner hit four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.
Allegany hosts CCBC Dundalk (10-6, 6-3 Region 20) on Monday at 6 p.m.
Potomac State heads to Howard (15-4, 8-2), the No. 17 ranked team in NJCAA Division II, on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“They just never beat themselves, that’s what it comes down too,” Streets said of the Dragons. “They play really good defense, they’re gonna take certain things away that you like to do.”