North Point girls roll past Westlake
Eagles finish undefeated in conference regular season, take on Chopticon for SMAC title
The North Point girls basketball team has been all but dominant in the Southern Maryland Athlet- ic Conference this season.
The Eagles capped off conference play for the regular season with a 61-33 victory over host Westlake on Friday night to sweep the season series.
North Point (19-3, 12-0 SMAC Potomac) finished undefeated versus SMAC opponents in the regular season en route to their second straight Potomac Division crown and are scheduled to host Chopticon, the Chesapeake Division champion, at 6:30 p.m Wednesday for the SMAC championship.
Last season, the Eagles edged Braves 48-47 for the SMAC crown on a game-winning shot with just two seconds left from Latavia Jackson. North
Point won 64-51 on Dec. 7 in the teams’ only regular season meeting.
In 16 games versus conference opponents this winter, the Eagles won by an average margin of 40 points and scored almost 73 points per contest.
“One of our goals was to go un- defeated in the conference and we were able to do that,” North Point head coach Michael Serpone said. “Now our next objective is to win the SMAC championship versus Chopticon.”
In Friday’s affair, North Point took an 18-9 lead in the first quarter and extended it to 32-17 at halftime. The Eagles put the game away after tak- ing a 48-22 lead after three quarters.
The Eagles were led by senior guards Aliyah Bullock and Necole Hope (13 rebounds) with a gamehigh 25 points and 22 points, respectively. Bullock also made four three-pointers.
North Point knocked down 16 of 24 free throws (66 percent) in the win.
Westlake (14-8, 7-5) had one player in double figures as junior guard Jasmine Gholson finished with a 12 points.
“We had some players in foul trouble early against Westlake, but the bench held it down and we forced some turnovers and got out in tran- sition,” Serpone said.
On Saturday in North Point’s reg- ular season finale, the Eagles fell to the Riverdale Baptist Crusaders of Upper Marlboro 58-47 on their home floor.
The game was tied at 14 after the first quarter and Riverdale took a 3125 halftime lead. The Crusaders out- scored the Eagles 19-8 in the third quarter to take a commanding 50-33 advantage, but North Point did not go away, cutting the deficit the six points with three minutes left. However, it wasn’t enough as Riverdale held on for the win.
Lauren Ebo led Riverdale with 12 points, while Kaylah Ivey added 11.
Hope led all scorers with 20 points and Bullock finished with 16 points.
The Crusaders had an advantage at the free-throw line, going 22 for 32 (69 percent), while North Point made just 8 of 14 (57 percent).
“Saturday we played hard, we just didn’t shoot the ball well,” Serpone said. “We were down double digits in the third quarter and were able to rally back in the fourth we just came up short. This was a good test for us with the [Class 4A East] playoffs around the corner.”