No. 5 Roland Park upsets No. 4 Western
No. 2 McDonogh wins; Coppin Academy beats No. 14 Mount de Sales
Saturday night’s showdown between the No. 4 Western and No. 5 Roland Park basketball teams figured to be close enough that one little thing could make the difference.
Instead, one big thing made the difference — Reds freshman Mir McLean.
The 5-foot-10 forward finished with 23 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Reds to the upset victory, 82-71, in the Power Move Winter Showcase at Western.
McLean gave the Doves trouble early, helping Roland Park build a 17-point late in the second quarter as she scored 12 in the first half. Her follow shot gave the Reds (15-6) their first 10-point lead with 2:31 left in the second quarter.
Jeydah Johnson hit a 3-pointer before Ja’Niah Henson hit two free throws and a layup off her own steal to push the Reds’ lead to 38-21. That finished a 13-0 run — the conclusion of a 23-4 spurt to open the second quarter.
“The big thing about having Mir is we can take some offensive chances and she makes up for a lot of that because she can go get the ball off the board and get us some nice putbacks,” Roland Park coach Scott Buckley said, “so our shooters can shoot the ball freely and not worry about having to be clutch. We can get to the rim and she takes care of it.”
McLean had a lot of help. Three other Reds scored in double figures — Henson with 19, Johnson with 16 and Aniyah Carpenter with 11.
Western coach Tasha Townsend said no individual had 20 rebounds against her team all season.
“We’re normally a really good rebounding team,” Townsend said, “but we weren’t boxing out.”
The Doves (13-3) got 34 points from junior guard Jasmine Walton, who brought them back in the third quarter. She scored seven of Western’s first nine points in the quarter and her 3-pointer with 3:04 left cut the Reds’ lead to 52-45.
In the fourth quarter, the Doves cut the lead to 61-59 on Walton’s follow shot after Makayla Pickens’ 15-footer started an 8-2 Doves run.
Roland Park showed its quickness running the floor when Carpenter grabbed a rebound and went end to end for a layup and Christyn Robinson secured the next defensive rebound and fed Henson for a layup. Henson added a couple of free throws and Rain Green hit a short jumper to put the Reds up 69-59 with 4:05 to go.
Jadia Jackson and Walton finished off three-point plays to pull Western within 71-67 with 2:47 left, but Johnson’s 3pointer snuffed out the Doves’ momentum and they never got closer.
“They made a real nice run to get within two,” Buckley said. “but I don’t think we had any panic. We settled back in and we made a couple changes. We went to the full-court press that wasn’t really designed to steal the ball. It was just designed to take a little more time off the shot clock and get some opportunities to get [Western] out of the flow.”
For the Reds, who have two regularseason games left before heading into the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference tournament, the win was big even though the Doves are nontraditional rivals.
“At lot of them played AAU, so we played in the same circuit,” Johnson said, “so this was a big game because they’re our peers, but also because of all the hype and how they were ranked above us. We were so excited to play, so hyped, so focused and I think it really showed.”
NO. 6 CATONSVILLE 71, ARCHBISHOP SPALDING 53: Catonsville held a 23-point lead after three quarters and fought off a late Archbishop Spalding rally to win in what Comets coach Mike Mohler saw as a potential trap game at Poly.
Although the Cavaliers (4-15) don’t have many wins, they play in the area’s top conference, the IAAM A Conference, so the Comets (17-1) were prepared for a team far better than its record.
“We knew they’re a tough squad to beat,” Catonsville All-Metro guard Jasmine Dickey said. “They’re real scrappy, real aggressive and we had to meet that or beat it.”
In the second half, the Cavaliers rallied to within 55-44 with about three minutes left. Ryann Evans led the Cavaliers with 14 points.
NO. 2 MCDONOGH 62, FREDERICK 55: The Eagles rallied from an early deficit to win a game in which the Cadets (18-2) were within four points with two minutes left.
McDonogh (20-2) hit 12 of 14 free throws in the final 1:56, including six of six from Aleah Nelson (15 points) to boost its lead as high as 10 with 30 seconds to go.
Kayla Liles led the Eagles with 18 points while Taleah Dixon added 13.
COPPIN ACADEMY 62, NO. 14 MOUNT DE SALES 44: Freshman Eniyah Russell scored 26 points to lead the Golden Eagles (24-8) over the Sailors (17-5).
Coppin Academy, a public charter school, also gave Mount de Sales trouble inside, where 6-foot-2 forward Jasmine Keitt dominated with 15 points.
NORTHWESTERN 48, MOUNT CARMEL 34: The Wildcats (12-1) got 11 points from versatile sophomore Nakiyah Johnson and 10 each from Shania Gales and DaShanae Jones in their victory over the Cougars (5-15), who played without three starters who were sick.
MILFORD MILL 59, NOTRE DAME PREP 20: Makenzie Pollard scored 19 points to lead the Millers (15-3) past the Blazers (7-12).