Southern Senior High School – AA | Archive | December, 2008

***Be sure to click the videos link for highlights, trophy presentations, and interviews***

James A. McCray III
Prince George’s County, Content Manager

HOLIDAY HOOPS CLASSIC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP:

There is no arguing that the number three was more than nice to the Elizabeth Seton Roadrunners in the 11th Annual Holiday Hoops Classic girls’ basketball tournament.

Seton advanced to the championship played on Monday night –the third day of the tournament– for the third consecutive year and after finishing second place the past two tournament appearances, Seton won the tournament with a 61-46 victory over Robert E. Lee.

“I am really happy about winning this tournament because we have placed second two years in a row,” Seton head coach Jazz Perazic said.

“I am really happy for the kids because they have worked really hard. They have worked hard, they are a great group of kids, they care about each other, and they are everything that a team really should be.”

Putting the number three into play even further is the fact that Seton won each of its three games played in the tournament by outscoring its opponents big in the third quarters of each game, 24-6 and 20-6 in the first two games.

In the championship game against Lee, the third quarter scoring fest held true to form as Seton (7-1) outscored the Lady Lancers 22-12 including a 10-0 scoring run midway through the period turning an eight point halftime lead into a 20-point lead, 50-30, heading into the fourth.

“We go into the locker room and we know we have to get it together and play our own game,” Seton’s Tyaunna Marshall said. “We come out and play our own game, and that’s how we do it.”

Marshall averaged 17 points per game over the course of the three-day tournament –including her 19 points in the title game– and was named the Classic’s Most Valuable Player for her efforts.

“It’s a great feeling,” Marshall said of the honor, “but I know I couldn’t have got this far without my team.”

Lee (7-2) head coach Harold Jackson understood how important the third quarter was for his team in the championship game.

“We talked about that at halftime, about not letting it get away from us in the third quarter,” Jackson said. “We came out and actually stuck with them but in those last four minutes we started losing it.”

Priscilla Moseh put on a shooting display for Lee as she led the Lady Lancers with a game-high 26 points including six 3-point field goals and despite the loss; Jackson was impressed with his team’s performance over the course of the tournament.

“We had a good time,” Jackson admitted. “I thought they played well against Bladensburg who had just beaten North Point; North Point was ranked. And in our first game against Southern we played pretty good, and tonight, we just ran out of gas.”

To be noted in the loss, Lee was without one of its top players as senior Kristine Mial was out with an apparent knee injury, a fact even Perazic took note of.

“I have to be realistic as any coach should be,” Perazic said, “their best player was injured, and that made a difference.”

Seton’s Katelyn Marshall was the only other player to score in double digits in the win with 13 points respectively and, as a senior, she is more than happy with winning the tournament in her last opportunity to do so.

“It feels good, finally” Katelyn Marshall said.

Lee    —     10   8   12   16; Pr. Moseh 26, Jac. Williams 11, Pa. Moseh 9

Seton —     9   19   22   11; T. Marshall 19, K. Marshall 13, Stelfox 10, Weatherly 6, Albanese 4, Martin 4, Missouri 2, Bronstein 2, Murphy 1


Third-place game
Old Mill 43, Bladensburg 34
Ciarra Lucas led the Old Mill Lady Patriots with 15 points in a 43-34 victory over Bladensburg. Old Mill’s Kourtney Salisbury was the only other Lady Patriot in double digits with 10 points on the night.

A 15-6 first quarter paved the way for the Lady Patriots en route to its respective third-place finish in the tournament.

Jasmine Wallace led the Lady Mustangs of Bladensburg with 9 points in the efforts.


Fifth-place game
North Point 53, Westlake 43
In a meeting between two Southern Maryland Athletic Conference teams, the North Point Lady Eagles won its second consecutive tournament game with a 53-43 victory over the Westlake Lady Wolverines.

Robyn Parks paced the Eagles with a 14-point performance. Kyarra Harmon and Brittany Baker also scored in double digits with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Westlake’s Shanice Goree led all Westlake scorers netting 12 points.

Seventh-place game
Southern 56, Gwynn Park 35
Averaging 17 points per game, Southern’s Jasmine Wills led the Lady Bulldogs to its first and only tournament win with 22 on the final day.

Teammate Raquelle Jones scored 16 points in the winning efforts.

Gwynn Park was led by three 6-point scorers as Karin Law, Siara Jackson, and Brittany Reeder each scored 6 points, respectively.

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By James A. McCray III
Prince George’s County, Content Manager

HOLIDAY HOOPS CLASSIC GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: DAY 2 RECAP

Winner’s bracket semifinals:
Game 1
Robert E. Lee 49, Bladensburg 28 (6 p.m.)

The Robert E. Lee Lady Lancers had one thing on its mind coming into its semi-final contest with the Bladensburg Lady Mustangs Saturday night, defense. Lee head coach Harold Jackson and the Lady Lancers wanted to earn a trip to the tournament championship game scheduled for Monday at 8 p.m. and after Saturday’s performance, consider its ticket punched.

Lee (7-1) held Bladensburg to 2 points in the first and third quarters of the game en route to its 49-28 victory, thus proving that defense does not only win championships, but gets you to the championship as well.

“It feels really good,” said Lee’s Priscilla Moseh on advancing to the tournament’s title game. “Coach gave us an incentive that they were giving out a big prize at the end, and that has been our incentive every day because we want the big prize at the end.”

Moseh played a vital role for the Lancers defensively putting constant pressure on the guards of Bladensburg and also offensively as she scored a game-high 17 points.

“She plays good,” Jackson said of Moseh. “She can handle the pressure and she can play under any circumstance. She has been playing varsity since her freshman year so she can handle it. … This year she is ready to run the show.”

Despite the high offensive output by Lee, it was defense that propelled the Lady Lancers to a victory.

As the game remained within reach for the Mustangs going into the half, Lee put the game out of reach with a 20-2 quarter and cruised to the victory.

“We saw some things that went on late in the second quarter,” Jackson added, “so we just switched the defense up. They had some problems with the new defense that we played and we got a lot of turnovers and easy buckets.”

Bladensburg (5-1) was led in scoring by Joelle Hill as she scored 10 points and was the only Lady Mustang in double figures.

Bladensburg    —   2   10   2   16; Hill 10, Ahaiwe 8, Wallace 4, Perkins 4, Davis 2
Robert E. Lee  —  13   12  20   4; Pr. Moseh 17, Williams 14, Mial 9, Pa. Moseh 6, Everett 2, Kolonich 1

Game 2 (8 p.m.)
Elizabeth Seton 65, Old Mill 48
For the third consecutive year, the Elizabeth Seton Roadrunners will play in the Holiday Hoops Classic tournament championship game. And after losses in both of the previous years, the Roadrunners hope that the third time is in fact the charm.

In arguably the most highly anticipated game of the night, Seton defeated previously undefeated Old Mill Lady Patriots 65-48 to earn its third trip to tournament’s title game.

“We keep losing it and this year I am thinking we have to win it,” Seton head coach Jazz Perazic said jokingly.

The game more than lived up to its pre-game hype as both teams played at a fanatic pace in the first half exchanging baskets and providing end-to-end action. The two teams played an evenly-matched contest so much so that the two clubs went into the half tied at 23.

And as the game remained just as close for the better parts of the third period, a 10-0 scoring run to close the quarter seemingly was too much for the Lady Patriots to overcome as Seton pulled away to the victory.

Seton (6-1) was paced by the inside-outside combination of Tyaunna Marshall and Alex Stelfox. As Marshall scored 21 points with an array of jumpers and lay-ups, Stelfox scored all of her 20 points, respectively, inside of the paint.

The third quarter has been the turning point of each of Seton’s first two games as a 26-4 third quarter helped in its opening-round game against Westlake.

“First we came out here and we were sluggish,” Marshall said. “But we came out of the halftime once again. We told ourselves we had to get ready and we had to go to the championship. We had to play our game and play hard.”

“We go in at the halftime and we talk to each other and we [know] we have to bring it out in the third quarter,” Stelfox added.

Old Mill (6-1) dropped its first game of the season with the loss and was paced by Ciarra Lucas’ game-high 22 points.

Old Mill    —    10   13   6   19; Lucas 22, Salisbury 8, Conley 5, Smith 5, Pinkcett 4, Atkinson 4
Seton      —    11   12   20 22; T. Marshall 21, Stelfox 20, Albanese 8, K., Marshall 8, Martin 6, Missouri 2

Consolation bracket:
North Point 46, Southern 43 (2 p.m.)
As missed shots bounced off of the rim and into the air in Saturday afternoon’s contest with the North Point Lady Eagles and Southern Lady Bulldogs one thing was clearly evident, No. 21 in a North Point jersey was going after it.

That 21 jersey belonged to that of North Point’s Brittany Baker as she pulled down 17 rebounds to go alongside her 11 points in North Point’s 46-43 victory over Southern.

“I know when they take foul shots, I have to go up there and pull [the rebound] down and put it back up there nice and strong and make the layups for my team,” Baker said.

“Literally, she kept us in the game with her mental toughness,” North Point head coach Keith Spencer said. “That is one area that we never have to worry about with Brittany. She is mentally tough, she is always focused, she is always working her tail off, and today that helped us, it really did.”

Although North Point earned the victory, it found itself down 1 point, 41-40, with only 2 minutes remaining in the game. However, North Point’s Tiara Butler knocked down a jumper giving the Eagles the lead for good at 42-41. 

The win allowed North Point (6-1) to bounce back from its opening-day loss on Friday to Bladensburg.

“It feels good to have a better taste in your mouth,” Spencer said. ” … I just knew that we were better than how we played [on Friday]. We didn’t have a glorious performance today, but we fought. I think if we continue to do that, we will be alright in any type of game that we play.”

Southern’s Jasmine Wills led the Bulldogs with a game-high 18 points on the day.

Southern    —   12   11   13   7; Wills 18, F. Jones 9, R. Jones 9, Beall 4, Eckard 3
North Point  —   9    17   15  14; Baker 11, Parks, 11 Stewart 7, Butler 5, Brown 5, Harmon 4, Thompson 2, Adams 1

Westlake 58, Gwynn Park 28 (4 p.m.)
Looking to bounce back from their respective opening-day losses, the Westlake Lady Wolverines took on the Gwynn Park Lady Yellow Jackets in the second game of day 2.

Westlake opened a 16-4 lead early in the first quarter and never looked back en route to its 58-28 victory over the Yellow Jackets.

Using its full-court pressing defense, the Wolverines earned many un-contested lay-up opportunities to earn the win.

“It was a lot better performance today, we executed better,” Westlake head coach Andrew Norris said. “We didn’t execute at all [on Friday] and that was the main focus today, to execute some things.”

Westlake’s Shanice Goree led all Westlake scorers with 12 points as the Wolverines had 11 different players — its entire roster — score in the victory.

“We were kind of recuperating from [Friday] because we didn’t do too well,” Goree said.

On what she likes about this year’s team, Gore added: “This year we work hard. We play as a team and [the] defense.”

Gwynn Park was led in scoring by Kirstin Mobley and Jasmine Simms as both respectively netted eight points. 

Gwynn Park    —   6   10   4   14; Mobley 8, Simms 8, Jackson 4, Alexander 4, Law 2, Black 2,
Westlake        —  18  12  13  15; Goree 12, Bell 8, Jones 8, Davis 7, Jones Harris 6, Swann 4, Barr 4, Brown 3, Beckett 2, Young 2, Malone 2


Championship Game: Monday, 8 p.m.
Robert E. Lee vs. Elizabeth Seton

Additional Monday games (All games to be played at Washington Bible College)
Southern vs. Gwynn Park, 2 p.m.
North Point vs. Westlake, 4 p.m.
Bladensburg vs. Old Mill, 6 p.m.


tmccray@digitalsports.com

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***Be sure to click the videos link for complete day one highlights***

By James A. McCray III
Prince George’s County, Content Manager

The Maryland Basketball Officials Association kicked off its 11th annual Holiday Hoops Classic girls basketball tournament on Friday, hosted by Washington Bible College.

The tournament features eight local teams including North Point and Westlake (SMAC), Bladensburg and Gwynn Park (Prince George’s), Old Mill and Southern (Anne Arundel), Elizabeth Seton (WCAC), and Robert E. Lee (Northern Virginia).

The tournament takes place over three days and with Friday already in the books, games are scheduled for Saturday and the tournament will conclude Monday night.

As four teams emerged victorious on day one of competition, all players from the winning side can agree that earning an opening-round victory was much better than any Christmas gift.

Day 2 scheduled game times:2 p.m. North Point vs. Southern; 4 p.m. Gwynn Park vs. Westlake; 6 p.m. Bladensburg vs. Robert E. Lee; 8 p.m. Old Mill vs. Seton

HOLIDAY HOOPS CLASSIC GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: DAY 1 RECAP

Game 1
Bladensburg 45, North Point 40
Both of the respective teams came into the opening-tournament game with zeros in the loss column as the North Point Lady Eagles held a 5-0 record and the Bladensburg Lady Mustangs held a 4-0 record, respectively.

Only one team however was going to end the day with a zero still in place and as the Lady Mustangs overcame three separate five-point deficits in the final quarter of play, it would in fact be Bladensburg earning that right with a 45-40 defeat of the previously undefeated Eagles. 

“I thought they played well,” Bladensburg head coach Lester Butler said. “They took their time and they played under control. … I don’t think they played the way we have [been playing] initially, but I think we had a few kids still celebrating Christmas.”

As North Point stretched its lead to 38-33 with 3 minutes remaining in the game –its third of three five-point leads– Bladensburg worked its way back slowly chipping at the lead until a Joelle Hill basket gave it the lead at 39-38.

Hill’s basket was followed by a basket by center Ucheci Ahaiwe to further increase the lead to 41-38, all of the cushion needed for the victory.

“We just realized that we can’t fall under and we can’t fold under pressure,” Ahaiwe said of the team’s fourth quarter thoughts. ” … We were tired, they were tired too, and we just had to prove that we had more heart and we had to play.”

Ahaiwe led all scorers with a game-high 16 points, nine of which coming in the critical fourth quarter.

Robyn Parks led all North Point scorers with 14 as teammate Tiara Butler put in 13.

North Point    —    7   8   12   13; Parks 14, Butler 13, Stewart 10, Baker 2, Harmon 1
Bladensburg  —    9   7    7    22; Ahaiwe 16, Wallace 10, Hill 9, Proctor 5, O’Garro 2, Perkins 2, Davis 1

Game 2
Robert E. Lee 64, Southern 42
In only her second game back from a stress fracture injury and despite being limited to only 4 minutes of action per quarter, Lee’s Kristine Mial scored 20 points to lead all tournament day-one scorers as the Lee Lady Lancers defeated the Southern Lady Bulldogs 64-42.

“It feels really good, I [have] been anxious,” Mial said of getting back in the flow of things on the court. “I am not usually one to sit on the bench so I have just been waiting to come back. I just had so much built up inside of me, it was fun.”

Lee (6-1) jumped out to an 11-1 lead to open the game as its constant defensive pressure turned into easy offensive opportunities and eventually to the win.

“We tried to put some defensive pressure on them to force some turnovers,” Lee head coach Harold Jackson said. “We got some early turnovers and we made some shots early. … We wanted to try and get out to a fast start and go on like that, and they did that tonight.”

On Mial’s performance, Jackson added: “She is a big plus on the court. … She just got cleared to play last week and she did well. We needed her big time.”

Lee also had two additional double-digit scorers as Priscilla Moseh scored 14 and Markel Yates scored 13 points, respectively. 

Raquelle Jones led Southern with 13 points on the night.

Southern    —     6   17   7   12; Jones 13, Wills 11, F. Jones 9, Eckard 5, Mcllrath 2, Rosenburg 2
Lee            —    15  16  18  15; Mial 20, Pr. Moseh 14, Yates 10, Jac. Williams 7, Pa. Moseh 7, Kolonich 4, Jas. Williams 2

Game 3
Old Mill 54, Gwynn Park 38
One look at the post-game scorebook and it is clearly evident, the list of players scoring for the Old Mill Lady Patriots is long. In the third game of the opening day, the Lady Patriots took on the Gwynn Park Yellow Jackets and used its depth to earn a 54-38 victory.

“That’s one thing that we have,” Old Mill head coach Craig White responded when asked about team depth. “If we want to play that pressure style, a lot of teams say they want to play eight to 10 deep, but we actually truly feel that we are eight to 10 deep.”

Not only do the Lady Patriots go deep on the bench player-wise, but the depth at the guard position runs deep as well.

Tonight, Old Mill (6-0) was led by guards Ciarra Lucas as she led with a team-high 13 points, Kourtney Salisbury who scored 9 points and dished out 5 assists, and guard Shante Atkinson as she scored 8 points, respectively. 

“We came in focused because, of course, it was a holiday and we are coming off of Christmas break, and we need to get out little work in for our season,” Lucas said. ” … We want to win it all so we came in with a lot of energy.”

“Our guard play is extremely strong,” White added. “We have the three of the top guards, we think, in Anne Arundel County [Lucas, Salisbury, and Atkinson]. They all work real well together and we are able to distribute the ball and so forth and so on.

“The major key is that all of our [power forwards and centers] are all sophomores and juniors and they come ready to play. One of our main concerns coming in was would we be able to rebound … and things seem to be working the right way.”

Kirstin Mobley had a game-high 15 points to lead the Yellow Jackets.

Gwynn Park    —     6   7   12   13; Mobley 15, Lee 7, Simms 6, Jackson 4, Law 3, Black 3
Old Mill          —    11  11  17  15; Lucas 13, Salisbury 9, Smith 9, Atkinson 8, Conley 6, Pinkcett 4, Hawkins 2, Sharps 2, Rijos 1

Game 4
Elizabeth Seton 65, Westlake 41
The final game of the opening day of the tournament for the Elizabeth Seton Roadrunners was a tale of two halves. In the first half of its contest with the Westlake Wolverines, Westlake controlled the pace of the game, so much so that it went into the half with a 22-19 lead.

However, a 9-0 scoring run to open the second half and a 10-0 scoring run later in the quarter catapulted the Roadrunners to a 65-41 victory.

“We started off slow,” Seton’s Tyaunna Marshall admitted. “We were playing around before the game and started off very slow. We couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t play defense, and we couldn’t run the offense. We went into the locker room at halftime and got ourselves together.”

Seton (5-1) in fact got itself together turning a 3-point deficit into a 15-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

“First of all, I don’t believe I have seen us play this bad ever in this my third year here,” Seton head coach Jazz Perazic said. “They are great kids, and they work really hard … and I went in and kind of just yelled at them a little bit, and I think it got to them.”

Westlake’s Shanice Gorce led all of the Wolverines in scoring with 14 points.

Westlake    —     15   7   6   13; Gorce 14, Bell 6, Barr 6, Jones Harris 5, Davis 4, Young 4, Beckett 2
Seton         —     9   10  24  22; Marshall 13, Stelfox 10, Missouri 8, Murphy 8, Martin 7, Weatherly 7, Marshall 4, Royster 4, Albanese 4

tmccray@digitalsports.com

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