New Town boys fall late
Patterson Mill, Atholton, Meade advance to state semifinals
The road to the MPSSAA state semifinals was wide open for host New Town boys basketball Friday night. Unfortunately for the Titans, someone forget to tell Frederick Douglass of Prince George’s County.
The Eagles got a 3-pointer from junior Albert Mouring with five seconds left and the benefit of a controversial call by the officials to defeat the Titans, 52-51, in the Class 2A state quarterfinals. The Titans had a 16-point lead at the end of the third quarter, but were outscored 26-9 in the fourth.
Arrington Greenfield led New Town (17-4) with 13 points. The Eagles (18-3) were led by Joseph Allen and Mikhai Arnold, who each scored 13 points.
Douglass will advance to next week’s state semifinals, where they will play the winner of Wicomico and Liberty at a site and time to be determined.
When the third quarter ended, New Town was cruising. The Titans got a layup by Cameron Blackmon-Bush with 36 seconds left in the quarter to take a 42-26 lead.
After that, the wheels came off.
Over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Eagles went on a 15-1 run, cutting the lead to 43-41. Douglass’ Joseph Allen did most of the damage with eight points during the run.
New Town got a layup from senior Julian Mack to raise the margin to 45-41 with 3:34 left, but the Eagles used two free throws from Mikko Arnold and a layup after a steal by Mikhai Arnold to tie the game at 45 with 1:55 left.
The Titans got exactly what they needed on the next possession when Mack hit a 3-pointer to give New Town the lead back.
Douglass got a layup from Mikhai Arnold, who was fouled. After he missed the free throw, New Town’s Blackmon-Bush was fouled on the rebound. He proceeded to make one of his two free throws, giving New Town a 49-47 lead with 1:12 left.
The Titans made 1 of 2 free throws on both of their next two possessions, taking a 51-47 lead with 34 seconds left.
Douglass got a one-handed layup on its next possession from Mikko Arnold to cut the lead to 51-49 with 14 seconds left. After an errant inbounds pass by the Titans, Douglass found itself with the ball with nine seconds left. Out of a timeout, Mouring hit a 3-pointer from the right corner, giving Douglass a 52-51 lead with five seconds left.
But the drama wasn’t over yet.
New Town attempted an inbounds pass and Douglass’ Mike Patterson reached over the baseline and swatted at the ball. The referees called a technical foul on the Eagles and it looked like New Town was in decent shape. However, after a conference, the officials reversed the call.
New Town was left to only inbound the ball, and a half-court shot by Blackmon-Bush just before the buzzer bounced off the backboard, ending the game.
This led to a hasty exit from the officials, who were chased part way to their dressing
room by several spectators.
When the dust settled, it left the Titans wondering exactly what happened.
“We had the same situation in our last game against Randallstown, where a player reached over the line and they were called with a technical foul,” Titans coach Derek Wise said. “I just don’t understand how they could take a call back like that.”
Wicomico 62, Liberty 61: The eighthseeded Lions, the Class 2A West Region I champions, fell to top-seeded Wicomico. Liberty held a 28-10 lead at one point in the second quarter before Wicomico scored 20 straight points to take a 30-28 lead at halftime.
Class 1A
Patterson Mill 43, Smitsburgh 41: The host Huskies withstood a fourth-quarter charge by Smithsburg to win an MPSSAA state quarterfinal.
Seniors Kyle Luddy and Robby March made big plays on both ends of the court in the final minute to secure the win.
Luddy tipped in a miss with under a minute left to give Patterson Mill a a 42-39 lead, while March blocked a potential game-winning 3-pointer by senior point guard Cole McKeever with just a few seconds left.
Luddy finished with a game-high 18 points, while Drew Pape finished with 12 points and Will Pape scored six.
Patterson Mill will meet Edmondson in next week’s state semifinals at a date, time and location to be announced.
— Randy McRoberts
Cambridge-South Dorchester 58, Francis Scott Key 49: Francis Scott Key was seeded fifth in Class 1A as result of a coin flip and fell on the road against No. 4 seed CambridgeSouth Dorchester.
Class 3A
Atholton 62, Kenwood 55: The last time Atholton boys basketball made it to the Class 3A semifinals, its chance to win a state championship was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Two years later, the Raiders are
back and ready to play in College Park again after beating Kenwood.
The chance to cut down the nets again meant that much to more Raiders coach Jared Albert after the last two senior classes could not play for a championship. Albert even cut down a portion of the net as a dedication to the 2020 and 2021 seniors who missed their chance to play for a championship.
“Every kid in the country has been through something like this with the layoff,” Albert said, “We got 11 great seniors and for them to celebrate on their homecourt with a state quarterfinal win, to go to the semifinals after a year of COVID is, I can’t tell you how special it is for our guys.”
For Zach Callender, the second trip to the semifinals is that much sweeter. The senior guard scored a game-high 30 points, and said that from the beginning of the season until now the coaching staff and players have remained confident in their chances to win a state championship.
“It means a lot. Not having a season last year, it really hurt,” Callender said. “It’s all of our senior year, so we want it more than anything.”
Class 4A
Meade 82, Northwest 76: The No. 3 seed Mustangs’ magical season moves on through the weekend with a win over No. 6 seed Northwest in the final game to be played at Fort Meade this winter. Meade will travel to a yet-to-be-disclosed site in Montgomery County for the state semifinals next Tuesday.
Senior Andre Campbell scored 21 points to lead a slew of double-digit scorers for the Mustangs. Junior Shawn Jones added 17 points and junior Kyree Scott exploded off the bench for 20 points, 12 of which came on 3-pointers.
“Every time Northwest made a run at us, we responded,” coach Mike Glick said. “When you get to this stage of the season, nothing’s gonna be easy. It’s surviving the dance.”