La Plata, MD - In one of the biggest wins of the 2025-26 regular season, the Howard Community College Dragons handled business Tuesday night against the College of Southern Maryland Hawks in an 88-79 victory!
The Dragons scored a season-high 88 points and held the lead for the entire contest, shutting down one of the highest scoring teams in Region 20 in the process. Despite foul trouble throughout the contest, the Dragons emerged victorious to move to 14-8 on the season and 7-2 in conference play.
Howard faced a tough challenge in Tuesday's game, which was postponed nearly a week due to the winter storms in the area. Southern Maryland featured the leading scorer in all of Region 20, Shamir Taylor, who was averaging 26 points per game heading into the game. To combat this, Howard changed up their starting lineup, adding
Kanye McMahon (Lexington Park, MD/Chopticon),
Jake Tillman (Atlanta, GA/Lakeside), and
Matt Dalton (Sykesville, MD/Bishop O'Connell) to the starting rotation. The different lineup worked to keep Southern Maryland off balance, and thanks to tough shots from Tillman and a pair of big threes from
Cedric Harville (Baltimore, MD/Ben Franklin), Howard opened up a 17-point lead in the opening minutes.
The Dragon's momentum eventually fell, as foul trouble began giving the Hawks a chance. Southern Maryland shot 20 free throws in the first half, compared to just four from the Dragons. However, the Dragons maintained the lead, thanks to solid work off the bench from
Nehemiah Smith (Bronx, NY/Laurel). Howard led 43-35 at the half, and kept the momentum going in the second half. Fouls continued to be a problem, as the Hawks shot 21 free throws in the second half for 41 total trips to the line. But solid bench work from
Myles McDuffie (Baltimore, MD/Lake Clifton) and
Sincere Barfield (Philadelphia, PA/Patterson), combined with clutch shots from Tillman kept Howard in the lead.
Late in the second, the Hawks began to reel in the Dragons. Shamir Taylor, Amir Dade, and Kyle Jackson all scored in double figures as the Hawks closed in to just five points. But Barfield hit a pair of huge threes and
Evin Thompson (Silver Spring, MD/Sherwood) came off the bench to launch a three of his own to reestablish the lead. With minutes left, the Hawks ran into foul trouble, and Shamir Taylor fouled out.
TaJir Webster (Waldorf, MD/St. Charles) put the exclamation point on the win with a two-handed jam on a fastbreak to ice Howard's 88-79 win.
Five Dragons scored in double digits for the best offensive output of the season. Tillman led the Dragons with 15 points off three three-pointers. Harville added 12 points, six rebounds, and two huge blocks, while McDuffie scored eleven points, three rebounds, four assists, and two blocks off the bench. Barfield had eleven points and two assists off the bench, while Webster scored eleven points and five rebounds in his first game of the semester.
Juan Bell (Silver Spring, MD/James Hubert Blake) had nine points, three assists, and three steals while running the points, while Thompson scored nine points, three rebounds, and three assists off the bench.
Kanye McMahon (Lexington Park, MD/Chopticon) added four points and five rebounds, while
Matt Dalton (Sykesville, MD/Bishop O'Connell) scooped up six rebounds.
The Dragons next face the Community College of Beaver County Titans on Friday, February 6 at 7:00 PM.
