Behind Diop, Panthers dig out of early hole
Junior leads with 18 points, helps keep Poly’s top scorer Mims in check in 2nd half
Fans lined up hours ahead of time to see Monday night’s boys basketball matchup between No. 1 St. Frances and No. 2 Poly. So high was the demand that fans broke open the doors of Goucher College’s 1,200-seat Decker Sports and Recreation Center midway through the first quarter, allowing several hundred to stream in.
So frenzied was the atmosphere that even Jay Wright, the head coach of the top-ranked Villanova men’s basketball team, failed to gain entry, and was left out in the Towson cold.
By game’s end, those who made it in had witnessed a classic.
St. Frances junior Bass Diop finished with 18 points and six rebounds but did some of his best work on defense, cooling off All-Metro guard Demetrius Mims in the second half as the Panthers rallied from an early nine-point deficit for a 65-57 win.
Though Mims, who’s headed to Long Beach State next season, finished with a game-high 27 points, only nine came after halftime. St. Frances’ Jordan Toles is fouled by Poly’s Justin Lewis in the second half. Toles scored 11 points as part of a lineup that wore down the Engineers in the second half.
“We had to change up the matchup, cause he kept shooting the ball going right,” Diop said. “They told me to guard him and just shut him down. Just force him left so he couldn’t score anymore. That’s what I tried to do. That was the biggest obligation I had to do. Don’t worry about scoring. Just shut him down.”
Jordan Toles (11 points), Adrian Baldwin (10 points, five assists, four steals), Rajeir Jones (10 points, four rebounds) and Elijah