Sports
With Both Teams Suffering From Suspensions, Patapsco Routs Owls in Battle of Dundalk
Both schools have lost key players to suspensions this year. For Patapsco, after a 14-1 start this year, a strong season has been put in jeopardy as the state playoffs approach.
In a hoops matchup of schools separated by less than two miles, Patapsco got the better of Dundalk, 78-24.
Both teams played without key players who were suspended earlier in the season. Dundalk lost 80 percent of its scoring, rebounds and assists when five key players either quit or were suspended from the team.
Patapsco played without guard Gary Fayall, who was suspended from the team for violating unspecified team rules. The loss of Fayall comes on the heels of the recent dismissal of key Patriot reserve Julian Allen from the team and just before the start of the state playoffs.
Find out what's happening in Dundalkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
After starting the season 14-1, Patapsco recently lost four straight games before beating Dundalk.
Players on both these teams were very familiar with each other.
Find out what's happening in Dundalkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We play down at Turners together,” said Patapsco guard Devon James of Dundalk guard Dewayne Marshall. “All summer long we play together.”
The inexperienced Dundalk guards could not handle the intense full-court ball pressure applied by the Patriots man-to-man defense. This defense turned into instant offense for the Patriots as they jumped out to a 17-5 first quarter lead.
“We have quick guards,” said Patapsco head coach Will Marshall. “We try to push the ball down the court. Early on our defense got us some steals, and that led to some transitional lay-ups and easy baskets.”
Rowland Hailey scored eight points for Patapsco in the second quarter as the Patriots pushed the lead to 38-11 at the half.
Devon Darby and Devin James combined for 16 points in the third quarter to put out the spark of offense that Dundalk started in the third quarter. Juwaun Lipscomb scored eight of Dundalk's 10 points in the quarter.
Five Patriots scored in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory.
Patapsco will finish its regular season at Kenwood on Wednesday. With a win at Kenwood the Patriots will be the fourth seed in the region for the state playoffs and will have a first round bye, then host a second round game.
“We didn't play well at all,” said Dundalk head coach Steve Oppenheim. “We didn't rebound, we didn't play defense and we didn't run our plays.”
Dundalk will host Western Tech also on Wednesday, but without Oppenhiem. The coach was given a technical foul and ejected from the court after the game ended after questioning one of the referees.
