Old Mill Boys Drop Road Test To Glen Burnie

GLEN BURNIE - The Old Mill boy's basketball team dropped its first in-county decision in the young season, as it was upended at Glen Burnie, 74-67.

Seniors Gavin Salmond and Brian Hinton combined for 51 points, but could not overcome the Gophers. Glen Burnie's Brandon Spain led all scorers with 29 points.

"We're still trying to find our identity with this team," Old Mill coach Greg Smith said.

Each team entered undefeated in county play, hoping to earn knock off their talented opponents.

A first-quarter block by Glen Burnie's Will Brown on Hinton let the visiting Patriots know points inside the paint wouldn't be easy. Brown protected the Glen Burnie basket all night, registering a game-high nine blocks.

"Now it's Brandon [Spain] and William [Brown]'s turn to lead this group," Glen Burnie coach Mike Rudd said about two seniors.

Glen Burnie took advantage of a poor second quarter from Old Mill, who scored only seven points in the quarter.

"Right now we're having trouble scoring. In that second quarter, we scored seven points. You're not going to win very many basketball games scoring seven points [in a quarter]," Smith said.

As if Brown's presence on defense wasn't enough, the senior forward just missed an emphatic second-quarter alley-oop off an inbounds play. Despite the miss, Brown still sent the Gopher fans to their feet in a frenzy.

At the break, Glen Burnie led, 34-22.

The game wasn't looking good for Old Mill when Spain picked off a pass to open the third quarter and went in for the basket, while drawing the foul. The Patriots didn't quit though. Hinton hit for 10 of his 25 points in the third quarter, while Salmond began to find more lanes to the basket.

"We've got to find a little bit more consistency from the outside. Gavin is going to get to the basket and Brian is going to knock down some shots, but we've got to get more support," Smith said.

Salmond would add 13 fourth-quarter points, as Old Mill fought to stay in the game.

"They could have went away very easily, but they've got way too much pride and they just fought all the way to the end. That's a credit to Greg Smith, who is a really good basketball coach," Rudd said.

Procting their fourth-quarter lead, the Gophers were sent to the free-throw line often. Glen Burnie proceeded to go 22-27 from the charity stripe, including Spain's 14-18, as they would not relinquish the lead.

"It's no way, shape or form time to panic. We've got plenty of time [left]," Smith said.