Second-half surge
Eagles girls rally again to reach 4A East final
EDGEWATER — Down 23-19 at halftime, the North Point girls basketball team were trying to find a way to crack South River’s zone defense with outside shooting during Thursday’s Class 4A East Region Section II final.
After struggling from the outside in the first half, shots started to eventually fall in the second half and the third-seeded Eagles outscored the top-seeded Seahawks 21-10 in the third quarter to eventually pull away for the 59-45 victory.
North Point advanced to Saturday night’s 4A East Region championship game where it defeated Severna Park of Anne Arundel County 54-30 for its third straight region title and seventh in the last eight years. The Eagles (22-4 overall after Saturday’s win) defeated the Falcons in last year’s region final 71-50.
North Point plays 4A South champion Eleanor Roosevelt of Prince George’s County in the 4A state semifinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at Towson University’s SECU Arena.
“We made a couple adjustments in the second half with our [defensive] pressure,” North Point head coach Mike Serpone said after Thursday’s win. “We just wore South River down in the third and fourth quarters. It feels good to be back in the region final on our home floor.”
Trailing 28-27 with 3 minutes 42 seconds left in the third, junior guard Latavia Jackson’s three-point play put the Eagles up by two points to help spur a 13-5 run to end the quarter, capped by a three-pointer in the closing seconds by sophomore Samarra Bynum.
With North Point leading 40-33 after three quarters, Bynum hit another three-pointer to start the fourth and the lead eventually grew to as many as 18 points as the Eagles’ full-court defense and speed eventually wore down the Seahawks.
Jackson anchored the North Point attack with a game-high 26 points, scoring 16 points in the second half. Sophomore guard Synia Johnson finished with 20 points and Bynum provided a big lift with 11 points, knocking down three three-pointers in the game.
“We knew they wanted to slow the game down, so we looked to get out in transition on their misses,” Jackson said. “We knocked down several threes in the zone and that really helped get our offense going.”
The Eagles made five of their six threes in the second half and was 17 of 24 (71 percent) from the free-throw line for the game.
“We started off slow, but we regrouped in the second half and came out harder,” Johnson said. “We turned our defense into offense and we made the extra passes to get the open shots. So we execute better down the stretch. This is special to get back to the region final with such a young roster.”
Since the 2011-12 season, North Point has knocked off South River in the region playoffs five times, including last season in the section semifinals by a score of 60-33.
South River (21-4) slowed down the game in the first half and was able to break the North Point pressure. In the second half, the Seahawks weren’t able to get clean looks at the basket and had key turnovers that spurred North Point’s run in the third.
The Seahawks were led by sophomore Ashlynn Burrows with 17 points, while Kathleen Sullivan added 12.
“We had a couple possessions where we missed a layup or didn’t get back on defense and they came back and hit a three,” South River head coach Mike Zivic said. “They hit their free throws and we didn’t. They just played better than us and it was evident that North Point’s speed bothered us. Once they got lead we couldn’t match up with them and create pressure.”