North Point boys win season opener
Eagles dominate Panthers on both ends
RIVERDALE — While several of his two-sport teammates are still gradually making their way back to the basketball court, North Point High School guard Asa Williams admitted he made a quick transition from the gridiron to the court on Tuesday as the Eagles trounced host Parkdale High School of Prince George’s County, 7645, in their season opener.
North Point (1-0 overall) was hardly playing at midseason form from the opening tip-off, but it was the beneficiary of numerous Parkdale mistakes. The Panthers (0-1) committed nine turnovers in a sloppy first quarter, including one on six straight possessions at one stretch, before finishing the game with 23 turnovers. The Eagles scored the game’s first four points and never trailed.
Despite playing without junior point guard Malik Lawrence, who will return to the lineup on Dec. 26, North Point was able to grind out enough points from Williams, Cameron Chesley, Micah Campbell, Satchel Ball and Avery Ekwi to forge a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and took a
29-20 advantage into the locker room at the intermission. The Eagles dominated the third quarter then expanded on their lead late in the fourth.
“Considering it was first game, I think we played okay,” Williams said. “We won tonight by over 30 points and we still don’t have Malik back. When he comes back we should be really tough to beat. I hit a few shots in both halves, but I really needed to do a better job passing the ball. I probably took too many shots instead of doing a better job looking for one of my teammates.”
North Point head coach Jimmy Ball agreed that while the offense may have struggled at times without its returning point guard, the Eagles defense created enough problems for the youthful Panthers that the game quickly got out of hand in the second half.
North Point’s lopsided victory spoiled the coaching debut of Parkdale head coach Seth Coffing, a social studies teacher at the Riverdale school who had previously coached at both the high school and collegiate levels in Indiana and Michigan.
“I thought we could have done a better job passing and rebounding,” Ball said. “We probably settled for too many shots from the perimeter. We definitely have to work on that. Defensively, we didn’t change much in the second half. They had trouble getting the ball up court in the first half, so we just kept playing the same defense. Last year, Jalen Gibbs was our only returning starter for the opening game, but this year we have a lot of guys back.”
North Point scored six straight points midway through the first quarter while Parkdale committed six straight turnovers, but the Panthers narrowed the gap to 10-7 when Sam Obasi (game-high 20 points) converted a pair of layups in a 30-second span. But Williams ended the opening frame with his first of three threepoint field goals to give the visitors a 13-7 lead.
On three occasions during the second quarter, North Point extended the lead beyond double-digits, with Williams connecting on his second three-pointer of the evening to make it 27-16 with 90 seconds left in the half. The Eagles finally gained some serious breathing room at the outset of the third quarter as Ball, Chesley and Campbell each scored inside to push the advantage to 3620 midway through the frame.
North Point took a 46-29 lead into the fourth quarter and Parkdale wa still within 17 points with four minutes remaining. The Eagles then embarked on an emphatic 16-0 run over the next three minutes with six different North Point players scoring during that span.
“The result really wasn’t something unexpected,” Coffing said. “We had trouble bringing the ball up court and until we pass the ball better we’re going to have trouble when teams press us. We have a lot of juniors and sophomores on the team this year. Our youth and inexperience showed up tonight.”
North Point is scheduled to be at Northern at 6:30 tonight.