Chargers lose first of season
Hurricanes boys hoops wins thriller over Lackey
Huntingtown first-year head coach Tobias Jenifer is only 27 years old, but there’s a good chance he aged greatly during his team’s 55-54 win over visiting Lackey in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference nondivision boys basketball contest on Wednesday night.
The Hurricanes (3-2 overall) have now won their last two games after losing their previous two.
“Because it was a short week and we had played Monday (a 58-37 win over McDonough) that we needed to close out the shooters, we needed to box out. We have to do the little things,” Jenifer said. “It’s not all about how much you can score,
but what are you going to do when the ball’s not in your hands? You’re going to cut, get to loose balls, things like that and we harp on that. It’s the little things that happen at the end that are going to win games for you. I think we were a little careless with the ball at times, but our guys did a good job of keeping their composure and settling down and pulling it out.”
“To be honest, we took them a little bit lightly,” said Huntingtown senior guard Daquon Watts, who scored a game-high 19 points. “But I think we came out strong the second half and executed down the stretch and got the win.”
Lackey (5-1) suffered its first loss of the season and their 54 points was a season-low, eclipsing the previous low of 57 against Chopticon on Dec. 15. Monday, the Chargers rallied from a 53-39 deficit after three quarters to beat Calvert 62-61.
“I thought we played hard, we just didn’t execute to the best of our ability,” Lackey head coach Sean Fox said. “I think that with the way we’ve been competing we’ve given ourselves a chance to win, which is always good. I think we can play with anybody when we are focused and when we execute. We just came out on the wrong end tonight.”
“Huntingtown has some good players,” said Lackey junior Rasheed Cooley, who had a team-high 14 points, “and they run a great offense, which made us talk on defense. I don’t think we did anything different. You win some, you lose some.”
The game featured seven lead changes and five ties and the biggest lead by either team until the fourth quarter was five points.
The Hurricanes were unable to hold onto a 10-point lead midway through the fourth quarter as Lackey charged back and pulled to within a point, 53-52, with 1 minute 32 seconds left.
“We’ve been resilient all year and with our youth the execution part is kind of off at times, but our guys always play hard, so when they came back I wasn’t surprised,” Fox said.
“I’m pleased how we came back,” Cooley said, “but we came out the first half slow, so we have to do a better job of coming out and with our intensity.”
After two missed field goals, the Chargers tied the game at 54 and appeared ready to take the lead when they stole the ball on the ensuing inbounds play, but A’Majhia Carroll’s layup failed to fall with 7.6 seconds to go.
“I trusted him 100 percent,” Cooley said of Carroll. “He’s young, but he gives us a lot of positive attitude and that last play didn’t lose the game for us. It’s stuff we have to work on to put us in the best situation, so we don’t have to be in that situation again.”
Huntingtown’s Mike Morrison grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 2.6 seconds left and missed his first free throw but made the second and Lackey’s desperation heave at the buzzer sailed wide and Jenifer’s heartbeat returned to normal.
“He’s a senior and one of my best shooters and he’s poised and these [shots] are not going to be a problem,” Jenifer said. “Then he goes and misses the first and my heart just drops. He’s to be commended for knocking down the second one, but I felt they were going to give me a heart attack.”
“I was just thinking, ‘He’s got the next one.’ That’s what he does,” said Huntingtown freshman guard/forward Michael Solomon, who finished with 11 points.
Eric Rowland had 13 and Carroll scored 12 for the Chargers, who will compete in the Northern Tournament next week along with Calvert, Patuxent and the host Patriots.
Huntingtown played Mergenthaler Vocational Technical in Baltimore County on Thursday.
The Hurricanes will also play in the Chris Sole Holiday Hoops Classic Dec. 28 and 29 at North Point and Westlake high schools. Huntingtown will face St. Charles at 3:15 p.m. Dec. 28.
“I think we got a good team win tonight, but we have to get right back at it tomorrow,” Solomon said. “We have to keep it up.”