Washington, DC—The Howard men's basketball team will be looking for its fifth straight win when it hosts the Knights of Central Penn College tonight at 7 pm in Burr Gymnasium.
The Bison (4-2) are coming off what was one of the most thrilling games in recent history. After trailing by 20 in the second half, Howard rallied on the scoring of James "J-Byrd" Daniel, III who tallied 27 of his career-high 39 points in the second half, including the game-winning three pointer with three seconds remaining. Daniel leads
Damon Collins, a 6-7 junior guard also played a role in the victory with 13 of his 14 points coming in the second stanza.
Howard is hoping to carry over that momentum when it hosts the Knights (8-3), who came into the game averaging over 94 points per game and having reached the century mark four times this season.
"You have to be wary of these type of games," said a cautious Howard head coach
Kevin Nickelberry. "These are trap games. We are coming off an emotional win over a very good William & Mary team and if we are not careful, we can suffer the same fate that William & Mary did against us. We have to forget about what we did on Saturday."
As important as the contributions of Daniel and Collins, two unexpected players,
Dalique Mingo and Solomon "Solo" Mangham, played key roles. Mingo, who played 22 minutes, contributed to the cause with 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Mangham, who was making his first start of the year, subbing for
Tyler Stone, was huge on the boards as he grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.
"Games like this allow us to work on chemistry," said Nickelberry. "The main thing is that we don't lose our intensity and come out and play Howard basketball."
NEXT UP: Howard begins MEAC play on Saturday when it travels to Greensboro, NC to take on the North Carolina A&T State Aggies at 4 pm, followed by North Carolina Central on Monday at 7:30 and concluding with a non-conference match against BIG 10 foe, Purdue on Wednesday in West Lafayette, IN at 7 pm.
