Boys’ Basketball: Generals Snap Nine Game Losing Skid, Beat Kenwood

The Towson High School boys’ basketball team has not had the year it and coach Timothy Gavin had envisioned before the season began. The Generals entered Friday night’s game with the Blue Birds of Kenwood with a 5-15 record and little more to play for than pride.

But sometimes pride is all the motivation you need—something the Generals proved against Kenwood as Towson (6-15) put together its most impressive game of the season and for their first win since Jan. 10.

Towson scored the very first basket of the game on a layup from junior center Tim Wheeler and never trailed, winning a tough game on the road, 68-61.

“We have been preaching four quarters of basketball and we came pretty close to doing that tonight,” Gavin said. “We just finally put the pieces together.”

Despite being undersized against a very tall Kenwood team that had two players listed at 6-foot-6, Towson’s big men, Tim Jarosinski and Wheeler, both 6-foot-4, put together two of their most impressive performances of the season. Jarosinski scored a game-high 19 points, while Wheeler just narrowly missed a double-double, finishing the game with eight points and 11 rebounds.

“Execution was outstanding,” Gavin said.

The Generals started strong, scoring 19 points in the first quarter, something Gavin said had not been done since the team’s third game of the season.

Senior forward Larry Ennels and Wheeler set the pace early. Ennels scored five of his 13 points in the first quarter while Wheeler added six of his eight.

If it were no for Kenwood senior forward Akeem Echols, who scored seven of his team-high 17 points in the quarter, the Blue Birds may have fallen even further behind.

But with Echols’ strong performance, Kenwood trailed by just five points after one, 19-14. The second quarter, however, belonged to Towson’s Jarosinski, who scored nine of the team’s 14 points.

“I can’t really think of a whole lot of shots that Tim Jarosinski missed,” Gavin said.

And with Jarosinski knocking down shot after shot, the Generals once again outscored the Blue Birds in a quarter—this time by one point, 14-13.

Towson led by six at halftime, 33-27.

The Blue Birds started the third quarter on a 7-1 run to tie the game, 34-34, for the first time since the score was 0-0. The Generals were on their heals and Kenwood was quickly gaining momentum.

That was until Towson senior guard Stefan Holmes hit a 3-pointer to once again give the Generals the lead. Holmes scored 15 points in the game.

But the Blue Birds answered right back, hitting a three of their own – this one from junior Travis Jenkins (14 points) – to tie the game, 37-37.

Towson would retake the lead on a tough shot by Ennels just to see Kenwood once again tie the game, 39-39. But that proved to be the last time the Blue Bird threatened the Generals.

Towson ended the third on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to seven points entering the fourth quarter, 46-39.

Kenwood gained no ground in the game’s final eight minutes as the Generals matched the Blue Birds point for point, 22-22.

“Our big motto the last couple days has been finishing,” Gavin said.

Holmes and Jarosinski led the way for Towson down the stretch. Holmes had seven points in the quarter, while Jarosinski scored eight, including four from the free throw line where the big junior went 9-9 on the night.

An earlier version of this article misstated the Generals' status in the postseason. Patch regrets the error.