GCS 66, RESERVOIR 45 Red-hot Dragons stay undefeated in 2020
Haynes’ 21 points key win in Public vs. Private Classic
The Glenelg Country School girls basketball team is keeping up with its New Year’s resolution.
No, the Dragons haven’t gone running every day or stopped eating sweets.
They’ve stopped losing basketball games. After opening the season 4-4, the Dragons have won four straight games to start the new year — all of which came this week. GCS capped off the successful week on Saturday with a 66-45 win over Reservoir in the Public vs. Private Classic at McDonogh.
“We started off the week with a tough win against Atholton,” said Caroline Haynes, who led GCS with 21 points. “After that, we got on a roll, and it’s a great feeling to be 4-0 to start 2020.”
The Dragons opened the week with a 48-46 win over Atholton. They then defeated Garrison Forest, 46-25, and Chapelgate, 66-26, before topping Reservoir.
“It was a great week,” said GCS head coach Will Harper. “I didn’t see us going 4-0. We were just focusing on taking it one game at a time, but we got a little bit of momentum and started playing really well.”
A 21-point win over No. 15 Reservoir (6-4), which lost by only five points to undefeated Howard earlier this season, may have been unexpected, but the Dragons’ sharp shooting led the way. GCS (8-4) made 12 3-pointers in the win — seven of which came from Haynes.
“It’s very important to our team, but Caroline does so much more than just shooting 3s,” Harper said. “She gives us such a boost. She shoots with such confidence.”
Ashlyn Bender also made three 3s, while Neve O’Ferrall knocked down two shots from behind the 3-point arc.
“We talk about fear not coming into our huddle or locker room, and today they played fearless,” Harper said.
Haynes and Blair Byrne opened the game with six points apiece to give the Dragons a 12-10 lead at the end of the first period. Ashlyn Bender then took over the second period with eight points. Bender finished the game with 18 points.
Haynes made two 3s in the third period to extend GCS’ lead to 14 points, and the Dragons extended their hot shooting in the fourth to win by 21 points.
“This is the best game we’ve played so far,” Haynes said. “I think it’s a turning point. We’re all starting to mesh together. We have a lot of conference games coming up, and I think this is a good way to get ready for those.”
Reservoir senior guard Tiffany Hooker, who is averaging 28 points per game this season, was in foul trouble for much of the game. She finished the game with 17 points on 4-of-16 shooting with seven points from the free-throw line.
“We were sluggish, but that’s a teenage excuse. We knew this was on the schedule. We had a tough game last night, and we should’ve been able to bounce back today,” said Reservoir Deb Taylor. “… We’re just not shooting the ball very well. When Tiffany scores at the pace she’s been scoring at, it hides a lot of the mistakes we were making.”
The Gators are back in action at home Tuesday against Thomas Johnson, while GCS plays at St. Timothy’s on Monday.
Glenelg Country School 66, Reservoir 45
GCS (3-1 IAAM B, 8-4 overall): C. Haynes 21, A. Bender 18, N. O’Ferrall 8, B. Byrne 6, C. Lisk 6, R. Byrne 4, L. Doreen 3.
Re (3-2 Howard County, 6-4): T. Hooker 17, K. Abunassar 6, A. Pennington 6, L. Hardie 5, K. Holmes 4, D. Moultrie 4, A. Jenne 2.
Halftime: 29-20, GCS
Howard 48, Mt. Carmel 39
Ho (6-0, 12-0): A. Harris 15, M. Sanchez-Henry 14, C. Malagar 12, E. Durkee 5, K. McDuffie 2.
Halftime: 26-17, Ho