Lions lead wire-to-wire, defeat Indians

SALISBURY — It led from start to finish. But it took all the gas the Queen Anne’s County High girls’ basketball team had in the tank Thursday night to hang for a 45-39 victory over Wicomico, in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Queen Anne’s (18-2) clinched the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A East Section II playoff bracket, and will host a second-round game Monday, March 4, against either No. 3 Parkside, or No. 6 North Caroline, who are slated to play in Salisbury on March 1.

“It was a good win. Tough game, but we got it,” Lions head coach Mike Kern said. “We need to handle the pressure better; that’s what we didn’t do well, but we attacked the basket and that was important.”

Queen Anne’s opened with a 9-0 run punctuated by three Wi-Hi turnovers and featuring Brooke Gordon’s 3-point bank shot, all in the first two minutes.

Wi-Hi head coach Willie Downing called time, and got his team settled.

“They came out hot,” Downing said of the Lions. “Coming into this season, you know, we weren’t sure what we’d wind up with. With a freshman point guard, we didn’t know how we’d handle even getting the ball up the court.

“But after that first little run, I think they did pretty well,” Downing added. “We just couldn’t get past them, even though we made it close a couple of times.”

A 6-0 Indians run made it a one-possession game, swinging the momentum back to Wicomico, and forcing Kern to burn a timeout.

As with the break Downing called, Kern apparently made the right moves, too. Right after that stoppage, Queen Anne’s added six uncontested points to its advantage, and was up 15-6 after one period.

Queen Anne’s opened its lead to as many as 11 points in the second quarter, but Downing put his smaller, faster, guard-heavy floor five into a press as the half wound on.

Though the Lions had a height advantage, the feisty Indians kept their foes off-balance enough to play them even-up in the second, each team scoring just seven points, while committing eight or more turnovers. At halftime, Queen Anne’s led, 22-13.

“I think we got some results out of the press when we were using it,” Downing said. “If anything, I think maybe that we didn’t use it quite early enough was one of the differences in the game

In the third period, Queen Anne’s had a little more success at handling Wi-Hi’s constant pressure, pulling ahead by as many as 17 before it settled back to 15, at 37-22. Six points in the period by Makenzy Hudock (game-high 16 points), who also put in six in the opening quarter, helped power the Lions’ push.

But the Indians rallied, Jonysha Prucien’s 3-pointer closing the gap to 43-39 with 90 seconds left. But that as close as it got. A bucket by Queen Anne’s Abby Blanchard, who charged straight up the lane with just over a minute left, proved to be the dagger, setting the score at 45-39. Neither team scored the rest of the way.

“I give Wi-Hi a lot of credit; they crashed the boards,” Kern said, “so we didn’t get a lot of rebounds, and we didn’t get the second-chance points.

“It was tough because they’re fast. We can go height, but they can go speed,” Kern continued. “We could go speed too, but I don’t know how well we’d match up with them, they were just so fast tonight. I think when they were scoring and pulling up close, it was when they were getting second-chance points and we weren’t.”

Freshman post player Kendal Moxey scored seven points and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds for the Lions. Jiyah Hollis added eight points and nine boards. Leyanna Pettit scored 11 points for Wi-Hi (15-5), which will host Kent Island (12-7) on March 1 in the opening round of the playoffs.

North Caroline 50 St. Michaels 28

ST. MICHAELS — Hailey Temple scored 16 points, leading the Bulldogs (11-9, 10-6) in their regular-season finale.

Kandice Thomas added 11 and Hannah Ringgold chipped in 10 points.

Lydia Shreves and Sincere Taylor each scored 11 for the Saints, who dropped to 2-19, 1-16 to cap the regular season.

Kent Island 79 Kent County 29

WORTON — Jordan Grard’s 20 points paced the Buccaneers, who finished the season 12-7, 12-3. Erie Clark added 14 and Blair Goodrich 13.

The Trojans finished the regular season 5-15, 3-13.

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

North Caroline 81 St. Michaels 7

ST. MICHAELS — Kendron Wayman netted 20 points, as the Bulldogs wrapped up the regular season, 9-11, 7-9. Cory Hall (17) and Montreyse Deshields (11) also broke double figures for Caroline.

The Saints (0-20, 0-16) during the regular season.

Kent County 82 Kent Island 78

WORTON — JayShaun Freen scored 43 points for the Trojans (8-11, 7-9), who wrap up the regular season tonight at home against Elkton. Jaden Wilson and Peyton Taylor each added 10.

The Buccaneers finished the regular season 11-8, 9-6.