It starts with defense
Chesapeake-AA is on a rapid rise thanks to its scrappy, tenacious play
Chesapeake-AA girls basketball begins its “defense” chant the moment the game starts and continues until the moment it ends. It rings louder than any cheer after a score, louder than the coaches’ instructions, louder than the crowd.
A potent rebounding team, defense is the Cougars’ best asset. From it flows everything else: a physical but speedy offense.
As Anne Arundel teams battle every few days to vie for the second spot in the girls basketball county championship and a shot at county-leader Glen Burnie, that hardearned balance is the reason Chesapeake is a postseason sleeper.
But the true test for them is cresting the horizon.
The Cougars (12-5) are running across every other top-six county team in a two-week span. They dropped a tight defensive contest with Severna Park on Tuesday, 36-30. They’ll play Southern next, followed by Glen Burnie, South River and Old Mill — the latter three are first, second and fourth, respectively, in the county standings.
Cougars coach Maria Gray would love to have a conversation with whomever scheduled that torrential downpour for her team, but she’s hoping it’ll empower her squad, no matter its record afterward. She wants her players to recognize that they can hang with any team and to believe in themselves.
“It brings out the fight in us,” senior Natalie Forman said. “We’ve had to be very disciplined [in those kinds of games], and it’s brought our whole team together, the starters, the bench, everything.”
Anything that brings this current team closer is icing on the cake. They didn’t have to build chemistry when it’s already something they had in spades.
Chesapeake benefits from a healthy feeder system for girls basketball, a rare thing nowadays.
This year’s Cougars grew together toward one goal: creating the strongest Chesapeake team they could. Many traditionally strong programs took heavy damage because of the lost pandemic season, but the chemistry the Cougars share made them immune to its effects. They’re each others’ best friends, confidantes and rocks, and it translates to their play on the floor.
Because of that, the seniors felt the possibilities their final season could provide before it began. But what they’re accomplishing now exceeds any and all expectations.
“It’s exciting. You can really just tell we’re all playing really well,” senior guard Ella Shannon said. “We all want it for each other. We’re playing as a family.”
Every member of this Chesapeake squad foresaw the potential this winter, including Gray. After going 8-13 last regular season, the Cougars peaked in playoffs, ending on their strongest note in a two-point defeat to Stephen Decatur in Class 3A South Region II semifinals.
They’ve carried on that tempo from one season to the next. The Cougars started 7-1 heading into the holidays. And to junior Kasey Slade, it wasn’t just that they won those games.
“In those first couple games we were winning, sure,” Slade said, “but we were playing to our top level, too.”
Chesapeake is at its best when it’s pushing the ball inside and working for each other. It’s equally swift as it is forceful on the glass; the Cougars aim for at least 40 rebounds per game. They’ve reached that mark in most so far, averaging 34.
They marry those strengths with their inside height — teammates seek out Slade, the team’s 5-foot-11 scoring leader (11.7 points per game), to score in the post. If not the inside, then it’s Forman, Slade (10.7 rebounds per game) and senior Madison Kelly boxing out to feed speedy Shannon or Ava Arruda, who run the transition game. There’s a competitive fire in them, Gray said.
The Cougars also display patience. Chesapeake chews on its shot clock, looking for the highest-advantage shot to take.
“All five starters on any given day can easily score 10 points,” Kelly said. “It’s hard to match up with us when anyone could be hot.”
When all five are firing, Gray said, “fun things happen.” But in every win and every defeat, Gray is still chasing something else: consistency.
She’s never certain which of her teams will show up each night. Sometimes, it’s an intense, physical group powering its way to the net and fending foes off on the glass. Sometimes, it’s a group turning over the ball and surrendering rebounds on both ends. Sometimes, it’s a mix of both in the same game.
Chesapeake can no longer cloak itself in underdog armor, especially after it claimed the title over Catonsville in the All About the Girls holiday tournament. Teams have caught onto its success and capitalize on whatever the Cougars are lacking against them. Arundel and Crofton took advantage of a lower shooting percentage; Chesapeake split those.
But those are, at the very least, lessons being absorbed on the journey, Gray said. She hopes that they’ll all jell together so that Chesapeake hits its pinnacle come February.
“I guarantee some of those Eastern Shore teams [we see in the playoffs] aren’t seeing the level of talent that we’re seeing across the bridge,” Gray said.
“We got to absorb these tough matchups. We know we can.”