St. Charles boys earn signature win over Westlake
St. Charles boys beat Westlake, spoils Wolverines’ senior night; Westlake girls win in overtime
Entering Wednesday night’s antic- ipated Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division boys basketball contest, St. Charles had nev- er beaten Westlake. When the game was over, that all would change.
The Spartans connected on 9 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter and provided strong team defense down the stretch en route to a 61-56 victory over Westlake, spoiling the Wolverines’ senior night.
St. Charles (16-5, 8-3 SMAC Potomac) knocked down 15 of 20 free throws (75 percent) on the night, while Westlake (16-5, 9-2) went 12 of 18 (66 percent).
Since its inaugural season in the 201415 campaign, it was the first win for St. Charles in four meetings over the Wolverines, avenging an 81-66 home loss on Jan. 20 in the first matchup.
St. Charles travels to La Plata to finish the regular season at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
“It means a lot to get another big win and the end goal is that we want to
playing well at the end of the season,” said St. Charles head coach Brett Campbell, whose team were without their leading scorer Shiloh Beale for the second straight game due to injury. “We want to peak at the right time and hopefully we are there, but we are taking it one game at a time.”
The Spartans have won eight straight games after dropping three straight to Thomas Stone, Lackey, and Westlake in January. They’ve avenged all three of those losses to their county rivals this month.
With the score tied at 51, St. Charles had three-point leads three different times with less than three minutes left. The Spartans later took a 58-55 lead after senior forward Merwan Mourtaj sank a pair off three throws in the double bonus with 42.1 seconds remaining.
After Westlake came to within 58-56 with 28.8 seconds to go, senior guard Cameron Sullivan, who missed three straight free throw attempts, made one with 19.8 seconds left to put the Spartans up by three.
On the ensuing posses- sion, Westlake senior guard Jeff Simmons (game-high 21 points) missed back-to-back three-point attempts with a chance to tie the game.
Senior guard Derrick Carter was then fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws to seal the game.
St. Charles, which led 42-39 after three quarters, opened the fourth with a 48-42 lead, but Westlake tied the game up at 48 with back-to-back threes from Simmons.
St. Charles went back on top by two with 3:39 left and, moments later, Westlake tied the game at 51 at the 3:03 mark. The Spartans took leads of 54-51 and 56-53 with less than two minutes remaining before Westlake came to within 56-55.
St. Charles had just one play- er in double figures in Sullivan with 12 points. Senior forward Sean Patterson finished with 9 points, while Jerome Savoy and Carter scored 8 each and Anthony Bowman added 7.
“It all happen in practice with our preparation and we came out and played hard,” Savoy said. “Everyone doubted us, but we came in here and played our game. We knew we had to slow down [Simmons] and just make the shots tough for him.”
St. Charles led 16-14 after the first quarter and the game was tied at 27 at halftime.
“We locked down defensively and we just did what the coach- es told us to do. This is what we came to do and we got it done tonight,” Bowman said.
Westlake, which is scheduled to face host North Point oat 7 p.m. Friday in its regular season finale, also was led by senior forward Amir Lawrence with 18 points. Junior forward Jonathan Barnes finished with 12.
“St. Charles played a little bit harder than we did, got all the 50-50 balls and had more energy than we did tonight,” said Westlake head coach Ed- ward Mouton Sr., whose team committed 20 turnovers. “We didn’t play our ‘A’ game and when you have 20 turnovers that will kill you. We have to go back to the drawing board and get ready for North Point.”
Westlake girls win in OT
At St. Charles on Wednesday night, the Wolverines girls delivered with a 70-64 road win in overtime over the Spartans in a SMAC Potomac Division contest.
St. Charles led 14-8 after one quarter and 32-29 at halftime. The score was tied at 41 after three quarters. In the fourth, St. Charles trailed 62-60, but freshman Cam Brown hit the game-tying floater to tie the game at 62 with six seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
In the extra period, the Wolverines (14-7, 7-4) outscored St. Charles 8-2 to close the game out.
Westlake had four players in double figures as Latavia Washington and Jasmine Gholson finished with 16 points each. Leah Johnson scored 15 points and Gwendolyn Brown added 10.
The Spartans (10-11, 5-6) were led by Desirae Shepard with 24 points, Aysia Jones finished with 15 and Shaniquwa Jackson scored 10 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.
Westlake connected on 26 of 38 free throws (68 percent) in the win, while .St. Charles made just 15 of 32 (47 percent).