Winter sports
No. 10 Long Reach wins;
No. 3 Roland Park reaches Nike tournament final
After five blowout victories by 30 points or more to open the season, all of which featured a running clock in the second half, the Howard girls basketball team went on the road Thursday and faced what amounted to its first true test at the hands of C. Milton Wright.
And, while it took until the fourth quarter to pull away for good, the Lions used a consistent effort on the defensive end to stay undefeated.
Five players scored seven or more points and Howard improved to 6-0 with a 53-33 victory over the Mustangs.
“We knew coming in this was going to be a tough one, a long road trip to play against a good team that’s athletic and fast. So we had to kind of battle through it at times tonight,” Howard coach Scott Robinson said. “But when we needed to, we made shots and I also thought we got great energy from some players off our bench — Lauryn Russell especially. She really came in and gave us a big spark in the second half when we seemed to be getting lethargic.”
Russell scored five of her eight points during a 9-0 run to open the fourth quarter that essentially put the game away. Joining her as offensive standouts for the Lions were Courtney Furr (12 points), Madison Burris (11), Marisa Sanchez-Henry (nine) and Taylor Addison (seven).
Sydney Frank (nine points) and Mariah Snyder (seven) led the charge for the Mustangs. While the team trailed most of the way, falling behind by 11 points at the end of the first quarter and 13 at the half, it was clear that C. Milton Wright had a game plan that wasn’t going to allow Howard to run away.
“We wanted to go in there and play aggressive defense, try to take them off their game a little bit,” Mustangs coach Beck Dutko said. “They’re a good team, they’ve blown out some really strong teams already this year, so we talked about matching them physically and not letting them be the ones dictating [tempo].”
After allowing C. Milton Wright to score 19 in the first half, Howard held the host Mustangs to just 14 points after the break. Robinson said finding a little more consistency is something the team will work on, but he was still pleased with the result.
“What we’ve got to do is learn to bring energy, all 12 players, into every game for the full four quarters. Quite honestly, I thought there were times where C.M. Wright just outworked us,” Robinson said. “But in the end, it’s always good to go into holiday break with a win … especially on the road.”
C. Milton Wright fell to 4-2, but Dutko said the team is right where she hoped they would be at this point in the season.
“I think we’re in a good place. We still have some improvements and adjustments to make, but you can see we are starting to come together,” she said. “”
Lyric Swann (20 points), Arianna Briggs-Hall (18) and Kiana Williams (13) all finished in double figures scoring for Long Reach, which was ahead by 36 at the half.
Hailey Hamshey and Olivia Reese scored seven points apiece for Centennial (2-1).
Maria Ferariu added 14 points, four rebounds and three steals and Ja’Niah Henson scored 11 points for Roland Park, which will face Omaha Westside (Neb.) in the championship game today at 4 p.m.
Aicha Coulibaly scored 23 points for New Hope (4-5), which will play St. Francis (N.Y.) in the third-place game today at 11 a.m.
Bach finished her high school career with 1,782 points. DeWees has 1,776.
Klingenberg, a junior, had four points and nine steals, and Erin Piper added five rebounds for the Mavs (6-0, 2-0).
Karla Stonesifer led the Eagles (3-3) with 11 points and two steals. Kennedy Cornick added eight points, six rebounds and two steals.
Boys basketball
“It was a good feeling to get this win,” said Westminster senior forward Shawn Blaney, who totaled 17 points and eight rebounds. “Century is undefeated and they beat twice last year. And coach [Brett Kanther] is always pushing to win this game.”
Junior guard Drue Giles added 13 points for the Owls (4-2).
Century (4-1) only had four players score as Azariah Knox (16 points) and Carter Truby (12) reached double figures.
Wrestling
One of the most exciting matches of the night, between the Patriots’ Nehemiah Carter and the Eagles’ Devon Muhammed at 160 pounds, ended with a scare in overtime when Carter landed awkwardly on his shoulder after attempting a takedown. The junior laid on the mat for several minutes in visible pain.
“He’ll be OK,” Grimm said. It’s more of a muscular strain in the back of his shoulder … I guess the shoulder kind of pulled back a little bit [and he fell.]”
Winning for Severn were Brad LaBella with a second-round pin at 138, Peter Jensen by 11-7 at 145, Bryan Arteen with a pin just over a minute into his match at 170 pounds and senior team co-captain Jacob Jarosz, by a third-period pin at 185 pounds.
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