No. 1 Mount Saint Joseph rallies to beat No. 3 Spalding
Top wrestling programs compete in quad meet with Curley, No. 7 St. Frances
The word in the wrestling world was that Mount Saint Joseph had lost a step this year. If the Gaels had, it sure didn’t show Wednesday.
In a long-awaited match, the top-ranked Gaels came from behind to defeat visiting No. 3 Archbishop Spalding, 32-30, in a quad meet. Before the main event, Mount Saint Joseph also defeated seventh-ranked St. Frances, 53-13, and Archbishop Curley, 61-18.
“We knew we were going be challenged by Spalding,” Gaels coach Harry Barnabae said. “Their kids work hard. We had a feeling it was going to be a very close match and it was.”
The Cavaliers won five of the first seven matches to take an 18-10 lead, but the Gaels came charging back. At 150 pounds, Cameron Cannaday cut the lead to 18-13 with a hardfought 4-3 win over Charlie Gessford. Then William Hudson scored an 8-3 decision over Spalding’s Josh Taylor to cut the deficit to just two at 18-16. At 165 pounds, Nicolas Barnabae received a forfeit for the Gaels, giving Mount Saint Joseph a 22-18 lead.
After that, the Gaels got a major decision from Gabe McWhite and a pin by Austin Lewis to take a 32-18 lead. Even though Spalding got pins at 215 pounds (by Pete Jerdal) and 285 (by Delmar White), the Cavs came up two points short.
“We’re disappointed,” Spalding coach Mike Laidley said. “I think a lot of the kids wrestled well. Our 120 pounder [Henry Gessford] was out sick today, and who knows what the outcome would have been if he’d have wrestled.”
Lewis, a defending state champion, said the Gaels aren’t used to having to sweat it out at the end.
“Not really,” Lewis said. “We had a scare from Loyola two years ago, but that was as close as I remember. We’ve had some guys who play other sports come in and put up some key wins, and that really helped to turn the tide for us.”
The biggest upset of the night came at 120 pounds, when Isiah Womack of St. Frances defeated defending state champion Jake Tamai of Mount Saint Joseph, 4-3. Womack said that after a tough early part of the match he had faith he could win.
“I went out their and started to put pressure on him,” Womack said. “When I did, he started to back up. At that point I knew I could beat him.”
In other action, Spalding defeated both St. Frances (41-29) and Archbishop Curley (54-22). The Cavaliers were dominant in the lower weights throughout the day, and the results bear that out.
St. Frances coach Douglas McClain was proud of the effort from his team as well. The Panthers moved up a level to the A Conference this year and wanted to show that they belonged.
“I think that we proved to ourselves that we could wrestle with anybody,” McClain said. “I lot of those matches could have gone either way, and we beat some really good kids, but I think when we lost, we lost the right way. That’s something we’ll take back to the practice room and use to get better.”
South Carroll sweeps tri-meet: When many discuss this year’s South Carroll program, there’s understandably quite a bit of focus on what the team lost following the graduation of the “big four” — four state-championship wrestlers — that led the program in recent years.
After impressive showings at the Trojan Wars tournament in Pennsylvania and Wednesday night’s tri-meet against Century and Liberty, coach Brian Hamper focused on what he does have in this 2023 squad.
“Losing those guys, you can’t even begin to replace them,” he said. “But we have developed a formula. We have it in place, now we have several guys we feel are ready to step up for us.”
Led by sophomore JoJo Gigliotti, a returning state champion, the underclassmen carried the way as the Cavaliers defeated Century, 55-17, and Liberty, 58-9.
Gigliotti is one of the nine underclassmen the Cavaliers sent to the mat Wednesday. Picking up where he left off, Gigliotti was on point Wednesday night, winning both his matches via pinfall with one coming just 49 seconds into the match.
Boys basketball
Loyola Blakefield 62, Mount Carmel 58: Loyola Blakefield might have turned a corner Wednesday. In a tightly contested league game against No. 3 Mount Carmel, the No. 6 Dons had all the answers in the fourth quarter. An adjustment to a puzzling zone defense at the start provided a bit of a cushion. In the closing minutes, a couple key baskets were linked with more quality defense and then poise at the free throw line.
Shortly after junior guard Jordan Hammond made two free throws with 1.7 seconds to play, Loyola Blakefield had closed a character-building 62-58 win over the Cougars.
The Dons, who got a sensational 22-point effort from junior J’Lin Brown, are 14-3 and improved to 3-3 in the Baltimore Catholic League and 3-1 in the Maryland Interscholastic
Athletic Association A Conference Red division. Mount Carmel (12-5) is 2-2 in the BCL and 4-1 in the MIAA A Red.
After being on the wrong end of close games against perennial league powers Mount Saint Joseph (60-58 on Dec. 6) and St. Frances (91-88 on Dec. 18), the Dons showed growth with Wednesday’s performance.
Severn69,St.Mary’s38: Current Severn players had never known what it was like to beat their bitterest rival: St. Mary’s. The last time the Admirals defeated the Saints was in 2020, by a point. Since, Severn has played pawn in St. Mary’s championship story for two seasons running. Severn missed the entire 2020-21 season while their rivals sharpened.
After Wednesday, however, it’s clear a new story might be starting. Severn (7-5, 2-0) controlled the game through all four quarters to thrash St. Mary’s, 69-38. It was a far cry from the 43-42 victory of four years ago, and the largest win over the Saints (4-9, 1-2) in coach Mike Glasby’s six seasons.
Senior guard Kingston Price headed the Admirals’ attack with 19 points, but he was far from the only playmaker — exemplary of exactly what makes Severn’s offense so tricky for opponents to stop this year. Freshman Corey Dixon, son of University of Maryland legend Juan Dixon, funneled most of his 14 points from the perimeter. Freshman DJ Lee chipped in nine points.
Marriotts Ridge 66, Howard 57: Marriotts Ridge found itself in a one-point game against Howard early in the fourth quarter.
The Lions were prolific from behind the arc, connecting on nine 3-pointers up to that point. But then, Marriotts Ridge played its best defensive sequences of the night. The Mustangs extended their zone, speeding up the Lions and creating turnovers.
Senior guard Jack Bonner and junior Restia Whitaker quickly took advantage with leak outs in transition, sparking an 11-0 run over a three-minute stretch. Bonner scored a team-high 26 points on the night, while Whitaker added 21, 16 of which came in the second half. That spurt helped the Mustangs pull away from the Lions, securing the 200th career win for Marriotts Ridge coach Seth Willingham.
Gerstell 56, Friends 44 Dulaney 64, Overlea 62 Parkville 59, Owings Mills 29 Perry Hall 63, Pikesville 41 Eastern Tech 75, Patapsco 56 Loch Raven 67, Dundalk 38
Archbishop Spalding 64, Glenelg Country 45 Centennial 63, Oakland Mills 38
Long Reach 78, Reservoir 52
River Hill 64, Glenelg 43
Patterson Mill 68, Bel Air 32
Mount Saint Joseph 70, Boys’ Latin 56
Girls basketball
Oakland Mills 64, Centennial 42: Despite a 22-point win, Oakland Mills coach Mike Coughlan was unsatisfied with his team’s performance.
Chloe Greenway and Destiny Macharia’s combined 39 points — including seven 3-pointers — did not mean much to Coughlan, who was upset with his team’s stagnant offense during the win.
“It’s been better,” Coughlan said. “I thought we were super stagnant on offense; I thought we were honestly settling for [3-pointers] a little too much. We can certainly shoot it, but it’s a difference between getting in the lane and drawing defenders and kicking it to the other side, as opposed to just standing there and shooting 3s.”
Oakland Mills (6-3) struggled to work the ball into the paint, primarily because of Centennial’s Adria Welsh. She played nearly the entire game and finished with 24 points, 16 rebounds, three steals and five blocks. Welsh outscored the rest of her team and was a challenge for the Scorpions to contain.
Catonsville 50, Western Tech 33: Catonsville’s defense held host Western Tech to three field goals in the second half and the offense clicked with precision passing and backdoor cuts as the Comets rolled to victory.
Aryanna Ebanks led the Comets with 15 points and Katie Dewitt, Emily Bartlett and Jaynie Simpkins added eight each. Dewitt also grabbed eight rebounds.
Freshman Katelyn Welsh, recently called up from junior varsity, contributed six points, four assists and four rebounds. Senior Ellie Altmann made the Comets’ only 3-pointer, but added eight rebounds and five assists, while also settling down the offense by handling point guard duties.
Howard 56, Marriotts Ridge 23 Hammond 46, Atholton 25
Mt. Hebron 50, Wilde Lake 9
River Hill 65, Glenelg 32
Reservoir 70, Long Reach 31
Pikesville 69, Perry Hall 21
Mount de Sales 57, Annapolis Area Christian School 19
Loch Raven 50, Dundalk 28
Havre de Grace 36, Bel Air 31
Southern 52, Great Mills 34