NORTH EAST, MD - Shane Taylor (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) put forth a career day as he led the #1 seed Howard Dragons to a dominating victory over the #8 seed Potomac State Catamounts by the score of 90-67. The Dragons improve to 24-6 on the year and advance to the Region 20 tournament semifinals.

The two teams started out slowly as there was a feeling out period in the first 10 minutes of the game. Potomac State hit a three pointer to take a 15-14 lead, but an 8-0 Howard run led by Andrew Mills (Owings Mills, MD/New Town) put the Dragons ahead capped off by a John Thomas (Baltimore, MD/Patterson) dunk. After Potomac State cloesd it to a two point game with two minutes left in the first half, the Dragons closed the half out on an 8-0 run highlighted by a Taylor hoop and harm at the buzzer to have Howard ahead 36-26 at half. 

The second half started with the Catamounts making one last push to catch up to Howard as they cut it to a five point deficit. That is when Taylor truly started to take over as he hit back to back three pointers followed by a couple Emanuel Henriques (Baltimore, MD/Benjamin Franklin) baskets that put Howard up by 14 in a flash. 

The Dragons would lead by double digits for the rest of the game going up by as much as 27 to close out the game and ensure the season lives on for another day.

Taylor scored a career high 25 points along with five assists, going 6-7 from three point range. Mills added a double-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and a couple of blocks. Jalen Bowie (Frederick, MD/Frederick) scored 12 points with 4 assists while Henriques added 12 points. 

The Dragons will advance to the semifinals where they will look to avenge a regular season loss to the College of Southern Maryland on Friday, March 8 at 4 PM. The #4 seeded Hawks are 19-11 on the season after winning their quarterfinal matchup 81-72 over the #5 seed Chesapeake Skipjacks. The Hawks defeated Howard 81-71 on February 13 in one of the rare losses for the Dragons this year.