North East, MD - The Howard CC Dragons were able to overcome a halftime deficit as they defeated the Cecil Seahawks 86-75. The Dragons improve to 15-5 on the season and 6-1 in regional play as they currently sit in second for the Region 20 standings.

The first half was a roller coaster affair with the two teams exchanging leads back and forth throughout the opening 20 minutes. The Dragons opened up their largest lead of the first half at 32-28 thanks to layups by John Thomas (Baltimore, MD/Patterson), Jalen Bowie (Frederick, MD/Frederick), and Shane Taylor (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) with five minutes left. The Seahawks answered back with a run to jump ahead and lead 38-36 at halftime.

Howard opened up the second half with renewed vigor as they forced turnovers and worked to the rim as they opened up a 48-42 lead. Ryan Conway (Towson, MD/Dulaney) followed that up with back to back baskets followed by a Thomas three pointer from the top of the key to extend the Howard lead to 14. 

Cecil would not go down gently as they stormed back to cut the Howard lead to 68-63 with six minutes left in the second half. Bowie answered back with a couple of tough layups in traffic to put the Dragons back up to a double digit lead. Taylor scored a tough layup followed by another one after a block by O'Meech Wilson (Glen Burnie, MD/North County) to get Howard back up to a 12 point lead. Andrew Mills (Owings Mills, MD/New Town) pulled down an offensive rebound and put-back layup as part of a 10-2 Dragons run that seated the result in favor of Howard. 

Mills led the way for Howard with 20 points and 7 rebounds with four assists and a couple of blocks. Bowie scored 18 points with 4 assists and 5 rebounds. Taylor added 15 points while Emanuel Henriques (Baltimore, MD/Benjamin Franklin) added 10 points. Thomas added 9 points and Wilson pulled down 11 rebounds with 4 blocks and 3 steals. 
 

The Dragons will have little time to celebrate their win as they play at Baltimore City on Thursday, January 18 at 7 PM. The Panthers have won the last seven meetings between the two teams and 10 of the last 12. Howard hasn't beaten Baltimore City since 2014 with the Panthers defeating the Dragons in their last meeting 80-77 in February 2023. Baltimore City currently sits at 8-7 on the year after a 90-86 win at Potomac State.