Men's Basketball Falls in Close Contest

By Bryant Marks

CUMBERLAND, MD -- Richard Bland College men's basketball faced off against Alleghany College of Maryland on Friday in a close game from start to finish but falls short by five points, 89-84.

Now 5-5 for the 2019-20 season, the team now has three games remaining before taking the rest of the month of December off for Winter Break.  Before that happens though, the team still has plenty of time to set the tone for the second half of the season with the first of those contests being a rematch against Hagerstown CC on Saturday at 1 pm.  The game is RBC's second game of the Hoops for Hunger Pepsi Christmas Classic at Alleghany College.

The first game of the Hoops for Hunger Pepsi Christmas Classic saw the Statesmen face off against Alleghany College of Maryland out of the NJCAA Region XX conference.  Right out the gate, RBC jumped out on a 6-0 run making it a point of setting the pace early.  Alleghany quickly brought the score back to a close game and it remained a back and forth contest for the majority of the half.  Stringing together several defensive stops, Alleghany gained a slight advantage over Bland going into halftime leading 43-40.  The second half saw an Alleghany team that controlled the pace and tempo, pushing their lead out to double-digits.  Bland kept clawing away at the lead and eventually only trailed by three points late in the half.  Ultimately, the Statesmen were never able to get over the hump created, falling 89-84.

Two Statesmen set a personal season-high for points on Friday with Antonio Puaauli-Pelham scoring 18 and Darius Jones dropping 16 of his own.  Kenneth Southerland also added 15 points.