High School Hoops Game Summaries

Big boast for St. Mary's
The St. Mary's girls basketball team lost, 60-35, to host Bullis on Dec. 17. The Saints were paced by Melanie Mocniak, who had 10 points.  Stephanie Lazo and Jennifer Broussard each had seven points for St. Mary's and Kelly Broussard had six.

St. Mary's bounced back to beat Dunbar of Washington, 46-43, on Dec. 18 and then faced Wilson, also of the District, on Dec. 19 for fifth place in the Bullis Holiday event. Bullis won the event Dec. 19 over St. Vincent Pallotti.

The Saints improved to 5-5 overall with a 52-42 win over Wilson as Mocniak had 12 points and six rebounds and Jennifer Broussard had 10 points and 13 rebounds.

"It was a huge confidence boast for us," St. Mary's coach Terri Daniels said of taking fifth place after it began the tourney as the No. 8 seed. "I feel great. Even though we lost to Bullis, they are a very, very good team. We lost to a team that was in the finals. It was a huge learning experience for us."

St. Mary's boys now 5-6
The Saints of St. Mary's lost, 64-41, on Dec. 17 to Archbishop Carroll in the first day of the Bullis tournament. Tevin Johnson had nine points and Willie Brown had seven points and seven rebounds as St. Mary's fell to 4-5 overall. Evan Pietras and Mike Wilde had seven points for the Saints. Carroll is a member of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC), one of the top prep leagues on the east coast. St. Mary's trailed, 20-9, after the first quarter.

St. Mary's then lost to Dunbar of Washington 82-56 on Dec. 18 as Johnson and Taylor Hurst had 10 points and Mike Wilde and Danny Usewick had seven. The Saints then beat Wilson, 65-57, on Dec. 19 in the Bullis event to improve to 5-6 on the season. Wilde had 27 points and four assists, Hurst had 15 points, four rebounds and two assists, Johnson had 10 points, eight assists and five rebounds and Brown had seven points.

St. Mary's grads with the Terps
One of the upcoming wrestling programs in the country is at the University of Maryland, and two St. Mary's grads are part of that rise.

Maryland senior Lou Ruland was 7-5 last season for the Terps as a junior. As a sophomore he was 21-10 and won the title at the Shorty Hitchcock Memorial Classic. The Annapolis resident was a four-time letterwinner at St. Mary's in wrestling and also played two years of lacrosse. He was the MIAA champ as a senior in wrestling.

Brad Molina, who won more than 100 matches at St. Mary's, is a sophomore at 141 pounds for the Terps. As a freshman at St. Mary's he was part of a team that won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association title.

He placed in the state meet as a sophomore and was named all-county as a senior for the Saints. The Annapolis resident had a grade-point average of 3.85 at St. Mary's. Maryland beat Penn and Northern Iowa in the Northeast Duals in late November but lost at Hofstra, 22-17, on Dec. 11. Ruland lost at 133 pounds in his match against Hofstra. The Terps take part Dec. 28-29 at the Midlands Championships near Chicago.

Brown, Jones aid Annapolis

The Annapolis High girls basketball team lost, 69-50, to South River on Dec. 17 and 61-59 to Oakdale on Dec. 18. The team won two of its first six games and was paced in scoring by Niccole Brown (10.6 points per game), in rebounding (10.2) and blocks (1.0) by Amber Jones, in assists (3.7) by Maya Butler and in steals (6.0) by Ter'ri Bennett. Allysha Mcfarland had 19 points against Oakdale and Butler had 16. The Annapolis High boys beat South River, 67-44, on Dec. 17 and improved to 3-1 overall.

Key school hoops
The Key School boys basketball team will face Park School at home Jan. 4 in the first game of the new year for the Obezags. One of the top scorers so far this season for the boys has been Alex DeMarco. The first contest for the girls varsity basketball team in 2011 is at Friends on Jan. 3.

Annapolis grad with national power
Davin Johns, a graduate of Annapolis High, was a sophomore offensive tackle this season for the football team at Wesley College in Delaware. The team was the number one overall seed in the Division III national playoffs and lost in the semifinals to Wisconsin-Whitewater, 27-7, on Dec. 11. UW-Whitewater won the national title with a 31-21 win over Mount Union on Dec. 18 in Salem, Va. A psychology major, Johns was all-county in football at Annapolis and also took part in track.

Johnson's team bows out
The hopes of back-to-back national titles in college football ended on Dec. 17 for St. Mary's graduate Marlon Johnson and his Villanova team. The Wildcats, one of the top programs at the Division I-AA level, lost 41-31 at Eastern Washington in the national semifinals.

Last year Johnson, a defensive end, started every game as the Wildcats won the national title over Montana. This season Villanova, from the Colonial Athletic Association, was one of the top teams in the country.

Johnson was an all-Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) standout at St. Mary's. Johnson was injured earlier this season against Temple and missed the rest of the season. The other national semifinal also featured a team from the CAA. Delaware, which lost to Villanova in regular-season play this year, beat Georgia Southern, 27-10, on Dec. 18 in Newark. The national title game is next month in Texas between Delaware and Eastern Washington.