Late Comeback Not Enough for Men's Basketball

By Bryant Marks
HAGERSTOWN, MD -- On Saturday, the Richard Bland College men's basketball team fought back hard in the second half but the gap created in the first half by Hagerstown Community College was too much in the end with the final score being 80-68.

The team is 3-4 on the season after Saturday's game.  After a stretch of road games, RBC will finally return home for a game against Pitt Community College on Wednesday, November 20.  The team will return to Statesmen Hall where they are undefeated on the season.  Tip-off will be at 7 pm.

The Statesmen started off the contest on Saturday slow allowing Hagerstown to gain the scoring edge over them.  The Hawks went on a 28-10 scoring run to create the separation in the first half and going into halftime led RBC with a score of 56-29. Lack of execution and turnovers hurt the Statesmen in the half and allowed their opponents easy opportunities to score.  The second half saw a different Richard Bland team than before as they stepped up the hustle and intensity.  They allowed almost half the amount of points that Hagerstown scored in the first while outscoring them by 15.  The Statesmen forced multiple turnovers as they turned up the pressure on the Hawks.  In the end, the hole dug by RBC in the first half was too much to overcome as they could not close the gap before the final buzzer.

Leading the Statesmen today were Kenneth Southerland with 15, Antonio Puaauli-Pelham with 13, and Jared Watkins with 10.