North East, MD - The Dragons were able to hold off a late surge as they handed Raritan Valley their first loss of the year in a thrilling 92-87 win for Howard.

An evenly matched game with lots of firepower on both sides saw Howard finish the first half strong to go into halftime with a 48-42 lead at the break.

The Dragons continued to hold off the Lions in the second half, building up a lead as large as 18 midway through. Howard still held a 12 point lead with six minutes left when the Lions charged back with a huge run to take an 85-84 lead with a 90 seconds remaining.

Needing a basket, the Dragons fed the ball into Andrew Mills (Owings Mills, MD/New Town) who hit a hook shot in the paint to get the lead back. Howard made a good defensive stop on the next possession and pushed the ball quickly which opened up a tip-in for Shane Taylor (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) to extend the Dragons lead. Howard was able to effectively hit their free throws to close out the game.

Mills had a monster game for the Dragons with 21 points and 10 rebounds including four offensive boards. Mills led the team in all five major stat categories as he also had three assists, three blocks, and two steals to go with his double-double. Ryan Conway (Towson, MD/Dulaney) scored 21 points as well while Taylor scored 16. John Thomas (Baltimore, MD/Patterson) scored nine big points off the bench while Emanuel Henriques (Baltimore, MD/Benjamin Franklin) scored eight. The Dragons had a great all around shooting day, going 50% from the field along with shooting 6-14 from three point range and 22-24 from the free throw line.

The Dragons will complete their three consecutive days of games when they return to Cecil College to take on Delaware Tech on Sunday, November 19 at 1 PM.