Frustrating Shooting Performance Leads To Defeat Against Cecil College For Men’s Basketball

Chesapeake College's men's basketball rolled into Skipjack Arena Friday night, December 6^th to face Maryland JUCO opponent Cecil College and cap off a home stretch of conference play. Their matchup against Cecil was their third conference opponent in five calendar days, all played at home in Wye Mills, Maryland. The Skipjacks fought hard for 40 minutes as they have all season, but after eleven lead changes throughout the game, Cecil escaped with an 83-68 win. With the loss, the Skipjacks drop to 8-3 overall, including 1-2 in conference play while Cecil improves to 7-5, 3-0 MD JUCO. Chesapeake was in the midst of a four game home winning streak before their loss to Cecil Friday evening.

The Skipjacks did their homework prior to their matchup against the Seahawks despite a busy week, focusing on shutting down Cecil's top player in Jacob Falko who has been tormenting defenses all season. The Skipjacks were successful in the first half, holding Falko to a modest 10 points while Chesapeake's Amir Pettiford put up 14 points to go along with 4 rebounds, both a team high at the break. Unfortunately for the Skipjacks, Cecil turned to their other playmakers who were able to put the Seahawks up 47-30 by halftime.

Playing from behind for the entire second half, the Skipjacks went on several runs over the final twenty minutes of play to put pressure on Cecil. Chesapeake came within 9 points of the Seahawks with 6:15 left in the half after freshman guard Mahzi Thames connected on a layup to bring the score to 65-56. Cecil would then respond with a run of their own over the closing minutes to put the game out of reach for the Skipjacks.

Chesapeake again outshot their opponent in the matchup as they often have throughout the season but were unable to shoot well, connecting on just over 32 percent of their shots while allowing Cecil to hit an efficient 54 percent from the floor. The Skipjacks were however able to improve upon their success rate from the free throw line, hitting 70 percent of their attempts which was a slight increase from their season average of 67 percent.

The Skipjacks will have over a week to refocus before returning to Skipjack Arena to take on Delaware Technical Community College on Saturday, December 14^th. Chesapeake has also added Baltimore City Community College to their men's basketball schedule who they will face at home Monday evening, December 16^th at 7 pm for their final game of the 2019 portion of the season.