North Point High School boys basketball coach Jimmy Ball watches the action unfold last Friday night when the Eagles traveled to St. Charles for a contentious Southern Maryland Athletic Conference clash won by the host Spartans 51-49.
St. Charles and North Point clashed in a contentious boys basketball contest last Friday night, eventually won by the host Spartans 51-49.
Ted Black/Southern Maryland News
North Point High School boys basketball coach Jimmy Ball watches the action unfold last Friday night when the Eagles traveled to St. Charles for a contentious Southern Maryland Athletic Conference clash won by the host Spartans 51-49.
Anytime Southern Maryland Athletic Conference crosstown rivals North Point and St. Charles clash in any sport, indoors or outside, the contests often evolve into contentious outings in which the respective win-loss records of the two teams is largely irrelevant.
Such was indeed the case last Friday evening when the St. Charles boys basketball team outfought North Point for a gritty 51-49 victory in front of a packed house at St. Charles. There were more than a dozen lead changes in the second half, 10 of which occurred in the third quarter, as St. Charles prevailed in a defensive struggle that both coaches expected.
St. Charles (9-5) first-year head coach Eric Sanders is no stranger to the rivalry despite his rookie status this winter with the Spartans having been an assistant coach the previous two seasons. Last Friday’s contest played out as Sanders expected, with his squad able to execute better late in the fourth quarter when the Spartans finally gained a slight cushion.
“Anytime you play North Point or Westlake, those games are going to be tough,” Sanders said. “North Point has a great coach and nothing is going to come easy against them. You’re going to have to work for everything. Tonight we were able to feed off the energy of our home crowd. Our goal is to go undefeated at home and win three-fourths of our road games and that would put us in position to be at home for the postseason games.”
While Sanders could breathe a sigh of relief after the Spartans forged the narrow victory last Friday, North Point coach Jimmy Ball lamented the one that got away. North Point actually led 8-0 early and 14-6 at the end of the first quarter and the two teams were tied at 22-all at the intermission and the Eagles led 39-36 heading to the fourth quarter before being outscored 15-10 in the final frame.
“We were not able to execute as well as I would have liked in the fourth quarter,” Ball said. “I thought we needed to do a better job rebounding the ball. We definitely had a difficult time defending [junior] Jamari Rogers. He was able to get to the basket a lot in the second half. Still, I thought it was a better effort than what he showed at Chopticon [on Wednesday].”
Rogers led the Spartans with 23 points on Friday, including the team’s first seven points of the fourth quarter when the hosts erased a modest, three-point deficit and twice pushed the advantage to six points the last at 47-41 with 3:50 remaining. St. Charles was also able to pad its lead at times at the foul line where the Spartans went 22-of-32 from the stripe while the Eagles were only 4-of-6, attempting zero free throws over the last three quarters.
