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Mount Savage, MD 21545
P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
Hot-shooting Spartans score 28 points in first quarter en route to 86-71 win over Huskies
* BW still top team - at least for now - and played like it
* Jones, Quincy Redmon each score 24 points for Spartans
By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
ACCIDENT, Jan. 19 -- The PhDispatch.com's Power Rankings aren't updated until Saturday afternoon each week.
Until then, despite the Spartans' 78-75 overtime loss at home to Southern Garrett on Tuesday, Bishop Walsh is still the top-ranked team among nine Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference schools. On Wednesday, they played like they want to stay at the top.
With no hint of fatigue from the game completed less than 22 hours earlier, Bishop Walsh jumped out to a 28-point first quarter en route to an 86-71 AMAC win against No. 6 Northern Garrett at the Igloo in Accident.
Pat Jones had 14 of those 28 points, including four 3-pointers. Jones said coach Bob Boyle had warned the team about coming out of the locker room sluggish to start the game. He need not have worried.
"That was what coach was really stressing in the locker room before the game," Jones said, "to make sure we didn't let down after a tough loss last night. I think we all got our act together today and I think we showed what we can do."
It was a great show - one that the Huskies were simply forced to watch after the first five minutes. Huskies standout point guard Matt Gibson hit the first of two free throws to pull Northern Garrett within 19-15 with two minutes and 40 seconds left in the first quarter. Then Jones hit his third 3-pointer of the game.
Quincy Redmon hit one of two fouls for the Spartans. Then Jones struck again from beyond 2-point range. Just like that, BW led by 11 points, 26-15. The Spartans led 28-19 after eight minutes.
For nearly three minutes into the second period, it seemed as if Huskies coach Chris Elliott had refocused his team and turned the tide. Austin Doerr hit his only two free throws of the game just 22 seconds into the second quarter to pull Northern Garrett within 28-21. On the next possession, Gibson's pass from an open Doerr, who found the basket for another two points. Less than 90 seconds into the period, the Huskies trailed by just five.
It was going to be a game.
"Let's play some basketball," Elliott had suggested to the referees before the start of the game, which was delayed by a moment or two due to a technical difficulty.
At this point, everyone wearing blue, yellow and white was listening. Greg Hendershot hit a basket for a 30-23 BW lead but Tyler Wilt - who finished with 13 points - responded with a field goal of his own just 10 seconds later.
On the next possession, Gibson's layup brought the Huskies to within three points, 30-27 with 5:18 left in the half.
But over the next 5:53, BW kept shooting and scoring. Northern Garrett didn't. And the momentum the Huskies had gained in the opening minutes of the second period was gone.
In that span, the Spartans scored 19 points. Northern Garrett? Just five - and three of those points came by way of the charity stripe.
Quincy Redmon, meanwhile, scored eight of those 19 points and had two assists in the same stretch. He finished with 24 points and four assists on the night.
BW scored only 32 points combined in the second and third quarters, but the combined 54 points the Spartans posted in the first and last period were more than enough to take away any hope the Huskies had.
Still, the Huskies brought the game back within reach. They trailed 44-30 at halftime and 49-32 just 55 seconds into the third period. Slowly but surely, however, Northern Garrett creeped back to make it a ballgame.
Patrick Sines hit a bucket to pull the Huskies within 49-36. Down 53-38, Wilt hit one of his two 3-pointers on the night at just the right time - specifically, with 3:49 left in the third to trim BW's lead to 12 points. Gibson followed up 38 seconds later with a field goal. Spartans 53, Huskies 43 - 11:11 left in the game.
The Spartans had a great night in transition - a strength when things are going well for the private school team. It worked again with 2:37 to go in the third when Dylan D'Atri (14 points) hit junior 6-footer Kammari Powell with a crisp pass. Powell quickly launched a mid-range jumper for a 55-43.
The teams traded baskets the rest of the period. Bishop Walsh led 60-49 headed into the final eight minutes of play. A bit more than three minutes later, Doerr hit the second of his three 3-pointers to pull the Huskies within eight.
BW coach Bob Boyle called a full timeout for his team to regroup. Jones said he and his teammates weren't concerned, but they did begin to "play with a little bit of a sense of urgency."
A little pressure was all the Spartans needed. Richie Mann hit his only two foul shots of the game for BW and Redmon scored again to put the Spartans up by 12. Doerr struck again from 3-point range to cut BW's lead to nine points.
But time was running out. And the Spartans began scoring again. D'Atri hit two foul shots with 3:57 left in the game. Redmon blocked a Husky shot, then dished to Jones for an easy fastbreak bucket just 10 seconds later. Mann recorded one of his game-high 13 assists about 30 seconds after that when he found D'Atri under the net. The Spartans led, 73-63, with 2:56 to go and Northern Garrett tiring.
Redmon hit two free throws and, in between another two points from Sines, Jones struck again to put BW up 77-65.
"We knew we needed a win tonight," Jones said. "We just came out and got it done."
Pat Jones 24 points, 6 reb, 3 assists
Quincy Redmon 24 points, 14 reb, 4 assists
Richie Mann 7 points, 13 assists
Dylan D'Atri 14 points
Matt Gibson 23 points, 10 assists
Austin Doerr 15 points, 7 rebounds
Steve Holtschneider 9 pts, 9 assists, 6 reb
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No. 1 Bishop Walsh 86
No. 6 Northern Garrett 71
BISHOP WALSH (8-3, 7-2 AMAC)
D'Atri 6 2-4 14, Mann 2 2-2 7, Jones 9 2-2 24, Hawley 2 0-0 5, S. Redmon 1 0-2 2, Hendershot 1 0-0 2, Powell 2 0-0 4, Q. Redmon 9 6-12 24, Rhodes 0 4-4 4. Totals 31 15-23 86.
NORTHERN GARRETT (3-3, 0-3)
Rayner 1 0-0 2, Holtschneider 3 0-0 9, Sines 3 0-0 6, Wilt 5 1-2 13, Gibson 8 7-8 23, Doerr 5 2-2 15, Humberson 1 1-2 3. Totals 24 4-6 71.
Bishop Walsh 28 16 16 26 -- 86
N. Garrett 19 11 19 22 -- 71
3-pointers: Bishop Walsh 6 (Mann, Jones 4, Hawley). Northern Garrett 5 (Doerr 3, Wilt 2).
JV--Bishop Walsh, 45-39.
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Today's scoreboard
Boys
Huskies must 'just forget about it' and put tough losses behind them, focus on future
By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
ACCIDENT, Jan. 19 -- All Northern Garrett boys basketball coach Chris Elliott could do Wednesday night is shrug his shoulders.
His team had just lost 86-71 to the visiting Bishop Walsh Spartans. The loss came about 24 hours after losing, again at home, to Allegany, 65-50.
So how does a team with aspirations of going deep in the Maryland Class 1A playoffs get back up after being kicked again and again?
After all, BW had beaten the Huskies by the same margin - 15 points - just six days earlier. Before a three-point win over Fort Hill for the Huskies' first Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference win this season, they lost to Southern Garrett by nine points.
And, before that, they fell to Keyser by - yes, 15 points. That loss was excruciating because Northern Garrett had led most of the game.
So how is Elliott to coach his team up and prepare them to face Southern Garrett - the team that beat BW in overtime on Wednesday?
They "just forget about it," Elliott said after the gymnasium lights were turned off at the Igloo. "We can't change anything after the horn."
This is arguably the toughest week of the Huskies' schedule. Don't feel sorry for them - at least, not without feeling sorry for a few other AMAC teams with tough weeks.
Changes were made to the original schedules due to weather. Otherwise, Northern Garrett never would have planned for Bishop Walsh-Allegany-Bishop Walsh-Southern Garrett for a four-game stretch in mid-January.
"this was a makeup game," Elliott said of Wednesday's home game against Bishop Walsh that was originally scheduled for mid-December. "it was supposed to be the second game of the year. It's kind of crappy that we had to throw it in now with Southern and Allegany" in the same week.
But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - or something like that. And Elliott, who still is looking for the thing that makes his team tick, has Maryland's open playoff system to which he can look forward with hope and enthusiasm.
He said it himself on Wednseday. There are times his team looks to be among the best in all of the AMAC. And there are times, frankly, it doesn't. He's hoping the Huskies show more of the former and much less of the latter in the weeks to come.