Season closes for Eagles
North Point falls to Catonsville, loses in 4A state semifinals for second straight season
TOWSON — Over the course of the final three quarters, the North Point girls basketball team was outscored by Catonsville of Baltimore County 56-28, including 11-1 in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the third.
That stretch of basket- ball summed up the Ea- gles’ Class 4A state semi- final game on Thursday afternoon at Towson University’s SECU Arena, a 64-40 loss to the Comets.
Catonsville (25-2 over- all), the 4A North Region champions, advances to Saturday’s championship game to face defending state champion Walt Whitman of Montgomery County, which defeated Prince George’s County outfit Eleanor Roosevelt 49-43 in Thursday’s other state semifinal.
North Point, which finishes the 2016-17 season at 23-4, fell to Walt Whit- man in last year’s state semifinals.
In Thursday’s affair, Ca- tonsville and North Point got off to slow starts in the first half with the Ea- gles shooting just 10 of 36 (28 percent) and the Comets going 11 for 26 (42 percent).
North Point led 12-8 after the first quarter and was up 18-13 in the opening minutes of the second, but Catonsville got better as the game went on, ending the period on a 17-7 run to take a 30-25 halftime lead that it would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
“North Point had four players that averaged double figures and we
just wanted to keep them off the boards and slow them down with our zone and make shots tough for them,” Catonsville head coach Mike Mohler said. “This is what we’ve been playing for all season and we still have one more game left to go.”
North Point cut Catonsville’s lead to 34-31 midway in the middle stages of the third, but did not come any closer as the Comets went on another big run to take a 49-34 advantage, capped by a deep three-pointer at the buzzer from sophomore guard Gabby Douglas.
Catonsville pulled away in the fourth to secure the eventual win.
North Point struggled from the field the entire game, connecting on just 16 of 63 shots (25 percent).
Catonsville junior Jamelia Barrett scored 18 of her game-high 26 points in the second half. She also shot 10 of 15 from the field to go along with five rebounds and was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free-throw line.
On the defensive end, Barrett had the responsibilities of guarding North Point senior Necole “Coco” Hope, who finished with a team-high 13 points on just 5 of 17 shooting. Hope had 12 of the Eagles’ 21 turnovers for the game.
“This has been a great journey playing with all my teammates and [North Point head] coach [Michael] Serpone has made us better players in my four years. We had a great season we just ran into a very good team,” Hope said.
Douglas finished with 18 points and junior for- ward Jasmine Dickey added 14 points and seven rebounds in the win for Catonsville.
“North Point is a great team and we wanted to come out with a lot of intensity. We wanted to bring it every play and that’s what we did,” Dick- ey said.
North Point senior guard Aliyah Bullock finished with 12 points and sophomore guard Latavia Jackson added eight.
“We played our hearts out, shots just didn’t fall today,” Bullock said. “I’m proud of my team and we have nothing to hang our heads about.”
Offensively, Catonsville dominated the paint, out- scoring North Point 3820 and had a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points. The Comets also converted 23 points off Eagles turnovers. North Point forced 18 turn- overs, but was only able to score six points off of the Comets miscues.
Despite missing its chance of playing in the state title game, North Point had a special season that culminated in Potomac Division, Southern Maryland Athletic Conference and 4A East Region titles.
“It was a tough way to end our season, but our girls played hard all season and I wouldn’t trade them for the world,” Serpone said. “I’m so proud of them. We had a great run.”
Guard Synia Johnson, one of four freshmen for North Point, said it was a good experience in her first trip to Towson.
“We didn’t want the outcome to be this way, but playing in this atmosphere was great,” said Johnson, who had three points and seven rebounds. “Hopefully we can get back to this point next year.”