Great Mills High School’s Jakai Butler heads to the free throw line for two of his game-high 29 points last Friday night when the Hornets upended visiting Leonardtown 81-58 in front of a sell-out crowd.
Great Mills High School’s Logan Mills passes the ball to an open teammate in the corner in last Friday’s game against Leonardtown. Mills and the Hornets pulled away from the visiting Raiders in the fourth quarter for an 81-58 victory in that contest.
Leonardtown High School freshman Carl Reeves attempts a pair of free throws while looking into the visiting crowd at Great Mills last Friday night. Reeves and the Raiders suffered an 81-58 setback to the host Hornets in that contest.
Great Mills High School’s Jakai Butler heads to the free throw line for two of his game-high 29 points last Friday night when the Hornets upended visiting Leonardtown 81-58 in front of a sell-out crowd.
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News
Great Mills High School’s Logan Mills passes the ball to an open teammate in the corner in last Friday’s game against Leonardtown. Mills and the Hornets pulled away from the visiting Raiders in the fourth quarter for an 81-58 victory in that contest.
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News
Leonardtown High School freshman Carl Reeves attempts a pair of free throws while looking into the visiting crowd at Great Mills last Friday night. Reeves and the Raiders suffered an 81-58 setback to the host Hornets in that contest.
After watching their counterparts on the girls basketball team suffer a modest setback in a game that was closer than the final score indicated, the Great Mills High School boys basketball team pulled away from visiting Southern Maryland Athletic Conference and cross-county rival Leonardtown in the fourth quarter for a 81-58 victory in front of a sold out crowd.
Great Mills (13-2), which never trailed in last Friday’s contest, vaulted to a 12-0 lead early and led 24-9 at the end of the first quarter and 28-9 early in the second. But in a game that played out along similar lines as the girls’ contest between the two squads on the same floor that evening, Great Mills watched its comfortable advantage all but vanish in the third quarter before the Hornets pulled away in the late stages of the fourth quarter.
“I thought we did a good job coming out and getting to the basket early and just riding the momentum of our crowd support,” said Great Mills coach Donald Thomas, whose team has won three straight since an 83-73 setback to St. Charles. “I think we were up 19 points at one time in the first half. But give Leonardown credit for fighting back.”
Leonardtown (7-6), which suffered its third setback to the Hornets this season and will now seek to end a three-game skid at Northern this evening, trailed by 12 in the early stages of the third quarter then rapidly trimmed that deficit to 49-47 midway through the frame on consecutive three-point field goals from Jovaun Herbert and Amari Barry and a layup from Braylon Gladden.
“This is a very young team and they showed me a lot tonight,” said Leonardtown coach Jeb Barber. “We were down 19 early and the guys could have easily packed it in. But they kept fighting. We had a great run there to start the third quarter and got it down to two. We just didn’t have an answer for Jakai [Butler]. He really killed us tonight.”
Butler led the Hornets with 29 points while Christian Willingham added 18 points and Cam Brooks had 10 rebounds, nine points and six steals. Leonardtown stayed close through the first minute of the fourth quarter, but Great Mills countered with a 7-0 run capped by a breakaway dunk from Butler to go up 69-54 then posted a decisive 12-run with Willingham and Logan Mills leading the charge.
Great Mills, which coincidentally defeated Leonardtown by an average margin of 23 points in their three meetings this winter, outscored the visitors 26-11 in the decisive fourth quarter last Friday.
The Hornets closed the contest on an extended 19-4 run, partially influenced when Leonardtown starters, Gladden and Ahmad Robinson, both fouled out with roughly six minutes remaining.
