Basketball: Young Cardinals Open Season with a Win

Calvert Hall coach John Bauersfeld came into this season knowing that his young Cardinals would provide flashes of brilliance combined with spurts of inconsistency.

Calvert Hall replaced its top six scorers from last season.

But while the inexperienced Cardinals struggled at times in Tuesday's season opener against Gilman, they also flashed their potential and managed to overcome a late surge by the Greyhounds to come away with a 56-51 victory.

"We're obviously young and inexperienced," Bauersfeld said. "It was a back and forth affair, but to get a win against [Gilman] is a big step."

Denzel Richardson (17 points) and Wes Blackwell (12), two first year varsity players that were key pieces of last year's 18-1 junior varsity team, helped the Cardinals pull away in the fourth quarter after the Greyhounds had established a 39-36 lead at the end of the third.

The duo combined for 11 fourth quarter points, including five during a 13-2 Calvert Hall run to start the quarter as the Cardinals built a 48-41 lead with three minutes, 30 seconds remaining.

Gilman, which shot 10-of-24 (42-percent) from the field in the first half, was just 1-of-4 during the run and also coughed up three turnovers.

But 6-foot-5 junior forward Ryan Ripken single-handedly tried to bring the Greyhounds back, accounting for all seven of Gilman's points during a 7-2 run to cut Calvert Hall's lead to 52-48 with just more than a minute left in the game.

The Greyhounds inched even closer as forward Chad Copeland's layup trimmed the deficit to 54-51 with 30 seconds remaining.

But after Gilman forced a Cardinals turnover, guard Darius Jennings missed two crucial free throw attempts and Richardson was able to ice the game with an uncontested layup.

Calvert Hall shot 10-of-14 (71-percent) in the fourth quarter after scoring just six points in the third.

The Cardinals led 29-26 at halftime.

Ripken and Copeland both had 15 points for Gilman while junior guard Cyrus Jones had 11, connecting on three 3-pointers.

Junior guard Julian Davis (13 points) joined Richardson and Blackwell in double-figures for Calvert Hall. Davis scored six points during the fourth quarter.

"It was an up-tempo game," Richardson said. "But we hit some big shots and just did what we had to do at the end."

The Cardinals won't have much time to rest, traveling to Brooklandville Wednesday night at 5:30 to face St. Paul's, the defending MIAA B Conference champions. The Crusaders were a combined 35-12 in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

 "It's going to be a battle for us," Bauersfeld said. "St. Paul's is really good, very talented and very well coached. We're going to have to fight and scrap. If we can stay in the game and hopefully get a win, that would be great."

Richardson sounded more optimistic, confident that the momentum from Tuesday's win would carry over to Wednesday.

"This gives us some very good momentum," Richardson said. "We've just got to leave this game alone now and move on to [St. Paul's]."