North Point girls claim 4A East Region title
North Point girls top Severna Park for another 4A East Region title
Bolstered by its signature stellar, pressure defense, the North Point High School girls basketball team smothered Severna Park early and never relinquished the advantage en route to a 54-30 victory over the visiting Falcons to give the Eagles their third straight Class 4A East Region title and seventh in the last eight years.
North Point (22-4 overall) owned a 14-8 advantage after the opening eight minutes, but it opened the second quarter with a prolonged 17-0 run that lasted until Severna Park’s Julia Ryan scored on a short jumper with just over two minutes left in the half. It was the type of surge the Eagles coaches and players have come to expect and one that Severna Park firstyear head coach Kristopher Dean feared.
“That’s been our bread and butter all year,” North Point coach Mike Serpone said of the Eagles defense, which forced seven turnovers in the first quarter and six in
the first two minutes of the second. “Everything we do is based on our defense. That’s our focus.”
“Our defense was really the key,” said North Point senior Latavia Jackson, who led all scorers with 18 points. “We started out strong on defense and we kept the pressure on them.”
Severna Park (17-9) had won six straight games heading into the 4A East Region final, but Dean watched his team’s bid for a 4A state semifinal berth end amid a sea of turnovers.
While North Point advanced to face 4A South champion Eleanor Roosevelt of Prince George’s County in one of two 4A state semifinals at Towson University’s SECU Arena on Thursday, to be played at 5 p.m., the Falcons season came to an end on Saturday.
“They really came out and pressed us and forced a lot of mistakes and turnovers,” Dean said. “We knew they were going to turn up the pressure and we just didn’t handle it. We had a little surge at the start of the third quarter, but after being down 31-8 at one point it was asking a lot to overcome.”
North Point opened the second quarter with the 17-0 run that included buckets inside from Kennedy Davis and Davia Jenifer and three-point field goals from Jenifer, Bynum and Jackson. Not only were the Falcons unable to score in the first six minutes of the second quarter, they committed turnovers on each of the first six possessions and finally ended the drought on Ryan’s layup.
North Point owned a commanding 3315 lead at the intermission, but Severna Park finally shook loose from their errant ways and actually chipped away at the deficit. Buckets from Ryan, Giblin and Emily Summers trimmed the deficit to 33-21 with just less than five minutes left in the third period. The Falcons also forced the Eagles to commit five turnovers
in the early stages of the second half, a reversal of their first half roles.
North Point closed out the third quarter on an 8-2 run, getting buckets inside from Jackson, Synia Johnson and Kennedy Davis. The Eagles were the only one of six Southern Maryland Athletic Conference teams — four girls and two boys — to prevail in its respective region final on Saturday.
“It would mean a lot to me and the other seniors if we could finally get a title back,” Johnson said. “We’ve been close, but we haven’t been able to win one. We’ve been playing hard and practicing hard and I think we’re focused. This last week is going to be crucial.”
Serpone, who described himself as a “film junkie”, noted that he had ample footage on Eleanor Roosevelt and planned to study those tapes this week extensively as his Eagles have three days to get ready for the Raiders on Thursday.
“I know what I’m going to be doing all day on Sunday,” Serpone said. “I’m going to look at tape of our game and look at tape of some of the Roosevelt games and see what we have. This week we have to work on everything. Once you get to states, you have to ready for everything.”