The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

BW takes offense, defense to a new level as top-ranked Spartans take out No. 6 Sentinels
* Q. Redmon, Jones and Hawley combine for 32 rebounds
* Spartans use 22-6 second quarter to pull away
* Mann holds Fort Hill's D'Atri to just 4 points
* Coach Boyle: 'that's our team ... That's the way you're going to see us the rest of the year.'

By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
CUMBERLAND, Jan. 7 -- The Bishop Walsh boys basketball team opened its season on Dec. 8 with a four-point home loss to Keyser.

Turns that, it ain't nothin' but a thang. It's a new year for Bishop Walsh and a whole new look. After 10 days, the Spartans opened the first week of the inaugural PhDispatch.com Power Rankings at No. 1 among the nine-team Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference.

Based on how the Spartans performed Friday night against visiting Fort Hill, they'll likely stay there the rest of the season. That's because Bishop Walsh limited the No. 6 Sentinels' hot outside shooter, Garrett D'Atri, to just four points and after a tight first quarter simply outran - and overran - Fort Hill.

BW won, 76-50. The home team used a 22-6 second quarter run to pull away from what had been a two-point game after eight minutes.

"They're finding themselves now," Bishop Walsh coach Bob Boyle said after the Spartans' fifth AMAC win in six tries. "I think, because of it being a city game, the boys were a little tight (in the first quarter). The way they took off in the second quarter through the rest of the game - that's the way we want to play. Hopefully, that's our team and that's the way you're going to see us the rest of the year."

Bishop Walsh point guard Richard Mann held D'Atri - who, it turns out, appears to be the cog in the Sentinels' offense - to a measly two points in the first half. D'Atri hit his first field goal just 31 seconds into the game to tie the score 2-2. It was his only basket in eight attempts in the first half.

In fact, D'Atri went another 30 minutes and one second before he hit his second basket, even missing two free throw attempts midway through the fourth quarter.

"We know what D'Atri can do," Boyle said. "He's a fine player. We said we wanted to stay in his face. I think our defense was tremendous tonight."

D'Atri has been restricted to six points or less in the first half of a game five times this season. In three of those games, he still managed to finish in double digits - including a 16-point second half against Silver Oak Academy from Carroll County during a Christmas week tournament. Against Keyser on Dec. 8, he was held to five points in the first half and finished with seven. Fort Hill fell to 3-2 in games in which D'Atri was limited to six points or less in the first 16 minutes of play.

Mann and Quincy Redmon led the Spartans through the first period. Mann had five points, including the first of four 3-pointers, and Redmon scored four of his game-high 23 points in the first eight minutes as Bishop Walsh had a tenuous 15-13 lead.

What had been a close game through eight minutes turned into the beginning of a blowout less than two minutes into the second period. By then, the Spartans led by 11 as they scored the first nine points of the second quarter - including two more 3-pointers by Mann and a field goal by Kammari Powell.

Mann said Boyle's plan from the start was to play defense. It just took eight extra minutes for the plan to be executed.

"After the first quarter, we started to get warmed up," Mann said.

Mann had a little extra motivation. Family was watching.

"My parents were at the game tonight," he said. "I told them I wasn't going to let my guy score a single point. He got four, but we got the win at the end of the day, so I'm happy with that."

Bishop Walsh next plays against Northern Garret at home on Jan. 14.