FREDERICK, Md.—The Hood College men's basketball team (13-9, 7-8 Commonwealth) defeated the Commonwealth Conference's first-place Albright Lions (18-4, 11-4 Commonwealth) 70-60 to move to within a game of third place in the Commonwealth standings. Coming into the game Albright was ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic region making the victory all the more impressive. With the win and some other favoring results, Hood is now just one game out of third place in the conference with the last three games this season looking like it will be a rollercoaster ride.
Junior guard Cameron Cook had a huge game to pace Hood. Cook scored a season-high 28 points off of 9-13 shooting in 28 minutes of action. Cook constantly made big shots that kept the Blazers in front or seized momentum away from Albright. The junior also went 4-6 from three, while also hitting all six of his free throw attempts in his best shooting game of the season.
Senior guard Trey Quinn also had a big night, as Quinn had perhaps his best game of the season as well. Quinn's 18 points was a season-high, while he also had six assists and two steals to his credit.
Albright was led by senior Dave Singleton, who scored 20 points on 7-20 shooting. Albright was undone by their inability to make three's as Hood's defense did a very good job of defending the perimeter. The Lions went 1-23 from three, which give Hood a huge advantage from behind the arc. Hood made four more threes on ten less attempts helping to pave their way to victory.
Quinn made it very apparent in the first half that he was going to get to the rim and penetrate and Albright had nobody that could keep him in front of them. Quinn's drive and layup at the 17:15 mark tied the game at eight and gave the Lions a dose of what was to come all night.
Hood entered a four-minute scoring drought in the middle of the half, but was able to regroup and go an 8-0 run that was capped by a Reggie Daniels jumper to take a 25-18 lead. Albright went on a 7-0 run of their own to tie the game and both teams went into the break tied at 27.
The Blazers came out for the second half with a couple of wary minutes, however the squad quickly turned it around and went on a 15-2 run that stretched over four minutes. Two Cook threes and two Quinn layups highlighted the run that saw Hood take its largest lead of the game at ten points with 12:41 remaining.
The top-ranked Lions would not surrender though and went on a 9-0 run of their own. Albright switched to a press defense midway through the second half and the switch caused Hood all sorts of issues when first installed.
Cook would answer though and hit a layup and then a trifecta to give Hood a 52-48 lead with 8:27 remaining. The junior would pick up his fourth foul though and would have to come out of the game at the 7:05 mark. Quinn would pick up the slack though with four straight points that pushed Hood's lead to 58-50 with 5:37 remaining.
A Singleton jumper at the 4:03 mark brought Albright to within three points and had BB&T Arena worried that a comeback could be in store. However, the Blazers would turn to the free throw line at the end of the game to put away the Lions. Hood went 9-10 from the line in the last three minutes of the game, which turned out to be huge with Albright unable to match that offensive production. Hood would coast to victory in the end in what turned out to be the biggest win of the season and one that could turn the fortunes for the Blazers' season.
Hood returns to action this Saturday for a crucial conference matchup against Elizabethtown College. A Blazer victory will bring Hood back to .500 in conference play and could put Hood in a tie for the last conference playoff spot. The game is set to begin at 3 p.m.