Arundel boys basketball outlasts South River, 79-69
Arundel boys basketball knows it’s good. It knows it might be one of the best in Anne Arundel County. But the past two weeks have proved any given night could belong to any of its neighbors.
Friday’s fiery, physical clash between the Wildcats and South River had the same quality. The Seahawks, supposedly rebuilding after losing four of five starters, entered the night unbeaten with significant wins over Meade and St. Mary’s on their resume.
Up nine early in the fourth quarter, South River seemed to be marching to its fourth win. Instead, Arundel flipped the deficit completely, securing a 79-69 victory in the final minutes to earn its fourth win.
“I feel like this game made a statement,” said senior Noah Frayer, who scored 21 points. “I give great props to South River; they’re a great team. I feel like this boosted our confidence 30% more.”
The final four minutes dragged out without little input from the Seahawks (3-1). South River players stepped to the free throw line six times, sinking five. Arundel, meanwhile, nailed 18 of 18 from the line with Frayer adding eight of his own.
That, South River coach Darren Hall said, was the game-changer. Arundel had its leash on the momentum. Players such as junior Jay Reed quieted the Seahawks’ hopes with every basket.
“We do need to learn how to handle pressure late,” Hall said. “It’s a process.”
South River mounted a double-digit lead in the first quarter over the team many picked as county favorites. A fluid, social spread between the new Seahawks starters and their leader, senior James Crimaudo, keyed the surge. It wasn’t perfect by any means — players tripped into cheap fouls and passes were overthrown. But between the monopoly South River enacted on the boards and the frequency of baskets, the Seahawks were running Arundel’s court.
Until the Wildcats turned the dial on their physicality.
First, Arundel bodied in rebounds and putbacks. Then, it forced turnovers. Then, defense crowded the court so South River’s shooters lost their freedom. On the other side, Wildcats like Frayer carved so willfully through the Seahawks defense that he not only landed his shots but drew fouls.
Arundel junior Samson Anjorin clipped the lead to one, 20-19, with a 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer and assumed control with another one just after the second quarter’s start.
“Defense is what drives us,” Arundel coach Rodney Ramsey said. “Our defense helps us transition to offense — fast breaks and turnovers and things of that nature. It’s something we take pride in and something we work on each and every day.”
The teams took turns going on runs, swapping the lead back-and-forth before the game was tied at 39. Emotions flared to a fever pitch in the third quarter. The sides traded 3-pointers, jumpers, hard-hitting crashes on shooters, fouls and leads. Officials stopped action to chide players.
The tide shifted when Arundel could no longer will its way to the basket as it had before. Crimaudo and sophomore Jaden McDuffie widened the gap, but the lead wouldn’t hold.
“The focus was making sure we help because we started going man,” Frayer said. “We started getting lost. They were breaking the press easily, so that dribble penetration, easy for them to kick out and there’s a 50% chance of them making it.”
Other boys basketball scores:
Eastern Tech 71, Sparrows Point 29 Parkville 67, Perry Hall 46
Long Reach 63, Centennial 58
Mt. Hebron 61, Glenelg 54
Marriotts Ridge 62, Hammond 59
Gerstell Academy 80 New Hope Academy 71
Manchester Valley 54, Winters Mill 51 Liberty 71, Westminster 34
Patterson Mill 65, Elkton 44
Joppatowne 68, North East 28
C. Milton Wright 89, Aberdeen 58
Havre de Grace 67, Harford Tech 60
Crofton 70, Northeast 68, OT
Glen Burnie 62 North County 52
St. Mary’s 65, AACS 59 Broadneck 57, Severna Park 56 Southern 47, Annapolis 38
Girls basketball
Mt. Hebron 32, Glenelg 28: Consistent offense has proven difficult to come by at times for Mt. Hebron during the season’s opening two weeks.
The good news for the Vikings, as they showcased Friday against visiting Glenelg, is there’s more than one way to get in the win column.
Mt. Hebron clogged the passing lanes, grabbed contested rebounds and forced difficult shots for a full four quarters on the way to a breakthrough victory. While it marks the first win this winter for the Vikings (1-3), coach Tierney Ahearn said she’s thrilled to see the team’s effort and defensive intensity — holding each of its four opponents to 45 points or less — quickly becoming its calling card.
“As a coach, I feel like my identifier is that I get kids to work hard and I get them to play great defense. That is who I am and it’s what I stand for,” Ahearn said. “And I will be the first to tell you, it’s really hard to get kids to be that and embody that if you don’t get some [wins] along the way. So to have a game like tonight, where defense absolutely won us that game, goes such a long way to reinforcing everything we have been working on.”
Mt. Hebron sophomore Pearl Prasartkarnka, who led the way with a team-high 13 points, echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“It feels really great to be able to pull together and get a win … to get to see some success after a few losses,” Prasartkarnka said. “I feel like tonight we did a good job of not looking at the scoreboard, keeping our heads up and focusing on the next play. Even when we weren’t making shots, we kept playing hard on defense.”
Glenelg (1-3) was led by Maria Garbis’ season-high 16 points, which included three 3-pointers in a hot-shooting night.
The Gladiators never trailed in the first half and the game was tied at 22 going into the fourth quarter. That’s when the Mt. Hebron defense clamped down to hold Glenelg scoreless for seven straight minutes.
“We were trying literally anything we could to switch things up and get higher percentage shots — subbing offense and defense, trying to have our defense spark our offense — but every time we looked up we were still stuck on 22 points until the final minute of the game there,” Glenelg coach David Ebbe said. “Maria hit a couple huge threes at the end, but by that point it just wasn’t quite enough.”
Garbis’ last 3-pointer cut the Vikings’ lead to a point, 28-27, with 27 seconds left. Mt.
Hebron freshman Jaelyn Peters (8 points) answered with a layup. Then, in the final seconds, fellow freshman Michelle Nzelibe (5 points) sank a game-clinching free throw that made it a two-possession game.
— Brent Kennedy, For Baltimore Sun Media
Westminster 49, Liberty 42: Westminster found itself in a pretty deep hole against host Liberty in Friday night’s early-season Carroll County clash. But the Owls used their defense and some timely shooting to get back on track.
Behind 23 points from Maddy Gassman, Westminster (2-1, 1-1) erased a 14-point deficit late in the second quarter to defeat the host Lions. Gigi Hall paced Liberty (1-4, 0-1) with 14 points.
“We’ve been going through some difficult times as a team, but we never stopped believing in ourselves,” Gassman said. “We were getting beat a lot early in man, so we switched to a 2-3 [zone defense] and that really did change the game for us. After that, we started to play better.”
Westminster used two 3-pointers by Gassman, a field goal by Julianna Lesher and a three-point play by Kaylen Battle to go on a 9-2 run and cut the Liberty lead to 38-36 with 4:19 left.
Liberty took four-point leads twice in the last 2 minutes, but Westminster cut the deficit to just one, 42-41, on another threepoint play by Battle.
Gassman gave her team its first lead since the opening moments with a layup and the Owls never looked back.
“They finally calmed themselves down in the fourth quarter and the offense started to slow down for them,” Urban said. “Also, we didn’t hit shots the first three quarters, and the game of basketball is all about scoring. The shots finally started to fall.”
River Hill 72, Wilde Lake 9
South River 48, Arundel 12
Hammond 78, Marriotts Ridge 9 Oakland Mills 57, Reservoir 37
Centennial 42, Long Reach 26
Howard 43, Atholton 26
Hereford 42, North Harford 18 Manchester Valley 33, Winters Mill 22 Edgewood 58, Kenwood 43
Concordia Prep 43, Severn 40
Annapolis 70, Southern 68
Broadneck 46, Severna Park 38
Indian Creek 42, St. Luke’s (Australia) 23
Boys swimming
St. Mary’s 59, Pallotti 35; St. Mary’s 52, AACS 29