Catonsville held Loch Raven scoreless while forcing six turnovers in the first five minutes of Monday night’s boys basketball game. But once they got past those mistakes, it was all Raiders.
Loch Raven scored 23 straight points and forced 18 Comet turnovers in the first half. It’s 29-11 halftime lead became a 62-39 victory.
“We got off to a slow start, so after the first time out we were able to regroup and just get back to being ourselves,” said senior Earl Jordan, who led the Raiders with 16 points. “We got a lot of turnovers and then we do what we normally do.”
Dwayne Williams (14 points) and Brandon Vaughn (11) also scored in double figures for the Raiders. Gavin Edwards (16 points) and Gavin Jones (13) led the Comets.
The Comets built the early lead thanks to a trapping 1-2-2 zone that forced the Raiders into bad shots and turnovers.
“When we saw them on film, we knew they didn’t have many shot blockers and we were settling a lot, settling for jump shots, settling for 3s,” Loch Raven coach Brandon Thomas said, “and we tell the kids sometimes, it might be open but there is a better shot and that better shot for the game plan today was definitely attacking the rim. We wanted to attack the rim and once we got to attacking the rim we got the results that we wanted.”
Except for three free throws, all of Loch Raven’s points in the first half came on layups. Catonsville’s scoring drought in the first half lasted just under eight minutes.
“We just weren’t intentional with what was working,” Catonsville coach Jason Harris said. “We kind of went away from what was working, let our foot off the gas and got punched in the mouth.”
Jordan had a team-high nine points in the first half and every time Catonsville made a mini-run the Raiders answered.
Jones scored eight points, including two 3-pointers and Edwards scored nine points in the third quarter when the Comets cut the lead to 12, but Loch Raven answered with five points from Jordan and two 3-pointers by Vaughn, a sophomore in his first season on varsity who’s learning his role as a sharpshooter.
“That’s part of my game. I usually work on that every day go to the gym shoot a couple shots,” he said. “I’m actually on the team because coach wants me there for shooting.”
“He can shoot the ball very well,” Thomas said. “He’s growing up right before our eyes. He’s making the right decisions and getting his shots through the offense.”
Catonsville’s rally was short-lived because the Comets ran out of gas.
“I think we emptied the tank just to get it back to that point and at that point in the game, we left it all out there and I don’t think we had much left to give back,” Harris said. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
Jordan made sure that didn’t happen with his leadership.
“Earl is definitely one of the best kids, if not the best kid in the county from his mentality of the game from his IQ,” Thomas said. “He’s just an all-around great ballplayer, defensively and offensively. He’s a great kid to coach as well.”
Jordan hopes the game can be a positive springboard for the rest of the season.
“We knew we weren’t playing to the best of our ability, so this game is the one that is going to give us momentum to go on a run for the season,” he said.
The Raiders and Comets both evened their records at 2-2 and Harris knows he has to find a way to overcome prolonged lapses like the one Monday night.
“We are trying to work on, one, not getting punched in the mouth and two, when we do get punched in the mouth, responding to it much better,” Harris said.
Loch Raven — 7 22 16 17 – 62
Catonsville — 5 6 17 11 – 39
LR: Earl Jordan 16, Dwayne Williams 14, Brandon Vaughn 11, Tyler Brandon 9, Kaden Lewis 6, Brian Thomas 4, Amadou Sylla 2
CAT: Gavin Edwards 16, Gavin Jones 13, Nate Holub-Smith 5, Joele Johnson 3, Malik Henderson 2
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