North Point girls win in 4A East playoffs
Scores 19 in second half to put girls in 4A East section final
No matter what, Synia Johnson stays even keel as the floor general for the North Point girls basketball team.
After a slow start in the first half of Tuesday night’s Class 4A East Region Section II semifinals, the sophomore point guard made a concentrated effort to stay in attack mode and put the team on her shoulders in the game’s final 16 minutes.
And Johnson did just as she delivered with 19 points in the second half, nine in the fourth quarter, as the third-seeded Eagles won 48-44 at second-seeded Leonardtown.
“At halftime we talked about everything and in the second half we turned up the pressure on defense and just executed on offense,” said Johnson, who ended with a game-high 23 points to go with eight rebounds, three assists and one steal. “We kept pushing the ball on their misses and eliminated some of our mistakes.”
It was third time this season that the two SMAC counterparts met this season. Leonardtown won the regular season meeting 49-43 on Jan. 17 and North Point returned the favor with a 57-41 victory in the SMAC championship game last Tuesday.
North Point (20-4 overall) advanced to take on top-seeded South River of Anne Arundel County in Thursday night’s section final, a win away from going back to the region final.
“Leonardtown is athletic. They’re a young team and this is the third tight game we’ve had with them and you want to win the grudge match,” North Point head coach Mike Serpone said. “Eventually shots began to fall and we won that game because of execution down the stretch and preparation.”
Leonardtown led 32-25 with two minutes left in the third quarter after a three-point play by senior forward Kayla Goldring, but the Eagles responded with a 6-0 run capped by a jumper at the buzzer by junior guard Latavia Jackson to cut the Raiders lead to just one at the end of three.
Leonardtown took a 35-34 lead at the 6-minute 32-second mark on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Aliana Bernich (9 points) and later gave her team 40-38 lead on a jumper with 3:27 left. There were four ties and five lead changes in the final quarter.
That would be the last time that the Raiders would lead in the game as North Point went on a 7-0 run to go ahead 45-40. The run was spurred by two buckets by Johnson and a huge three-pointer by senior Camille Robinson (12 points) when the game was tied at 40 with 1:41 remaining in regulation.
“We had some struggles in the beginning in the game, but we wanted to prove a lot of people wrong and pull this win out,” said Robinson, who made three three-pointers in the game. “When we executed we were able to slow down Leonardtown’s pace and win the game.”
Freshman Imani Eubanks brought Leonardtown to within 45-42 on a pair of free throws with 48 seconds left. The Raiders did not come any closer as Johnson nailed three straight free throws to help seal the win. Johnson made 11 of 14 from the line on the night.
“Honestly the tides started to turn in the third quarter,” Leonardtown head coach Christie Doerrer said. “We had a 10-point lead and it got away from us. Synia started to take over, we were in foul trouble and put her on the line specifically too much, and she knocked down her free throws. As the first and second quarters progressed, they bought in more and more to the defensive game plan and we executed it well. I’m proud of their effort, the girls on the bench we’re into it and excited and that helped our energy.”
Throughout the game, the Raiders had success breaking North Point’s full-court pressure and were able to slow them down with a 2-3 zone defense for much of the first half and in spurts in the second half before North Point turned the tides in the end.
The game was tied at 5 after the first quarter and Leonardtown led 17-12 at halftime.
Goldring, who was able to utilize her size and strength inside, finished with a team-high 15 points and made 9 of 10 free throws in the game.
Leonardtown (17-4), which had its best season in as many years, will lose just two seniors on the roster in Goldring and Leah Gough.
The 17 wins this season eclipsed the 16 the Raiders won a season ago and the last time they won at least 17 games was in the 1998-99 season.
“Having potentially our entire team back bodes well for the future,” added Doerrer, who led the Raiders to their first-ever SMAC Chesapeake Division title. “This is the best season Leonardtown has had in quite some time and I’m proud of the girls. I wouldn’t want to coach any other group of kids. I’m looking forward to what our program does in the future.”