In the game of basketball, it’s difficult to keep your opponent from scoring a single point in a quarter. Southwestern High girls’ proved that it may hard to do, but not impossible, as the Sabres held Southside Academy scoreless in the second quarter in their 66-29 annihatilaton in the Baltimore City Division II championship game at Baltimore City Community College Wednesday.
“I’m not sure if we [Southwestern] had actually this many great basketball players on the girls’ side,” said Southwestern coach Joe Kennedy. “I had seven basketball players who have been playing three to four years and with tha kind of experience, I kind of just sit back and let them do their thing.”
“It was a real good game, we had to stay focused and play our hearts out,” said Lakeisha Taylor who finished with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Southwestern (14-3 overall) completes the three-game sweep of Southside Academy (10-5), capturing the school’s first girls’ basketball championship.
Shamera O’Neal had 20 points, eight assists and seven steals for Southwestern while Chakir Sydnor had 12 points.
“I told them right out of the beginning looking at them [Southside Academy] they’re a young team, they we’re real nervous,” said Kennedy. “I got a bunch of older girls whom four are seniors. We came out and jumped on them, where they were a little timid at first, we weren’t and we just jumped on them.”
Southwestern did just that, leading wire-to-wire. O’Neal led the Sabres’ offensive barrage, scoring 10 of Southwestern 17 points in the first quarter. Defense was the focal point for the Sabres, utilizing a box and one defense to contain Southside’s Myrea Carroll, who tallied all of her team-leading 15 points in the second half.
In the second quarter, Southwestern forced 11 turnovers and scored eight fast break points. The Sabres led 29-6 at intermission before a 21-9 third quarter run made it 50-15 entering the final eight minutes.
“We’re a defensive minded team, we average 60 points a game, but we preach defense,” said Kennedy. “We take it personally when people are trying to score on us.”
Southwestern kept up the offensive pressure as Taylor and O’Neal continued to score at will. The Jaguars did play better in the final quarter, but the Sabres had already did more than enough damage.
“We came out, we played hard and we did our best,” said O’Neal. “We beat them two times during the season. We had it in the bag.”
Baltimore City Division II Girls’ Basketball Championship at Baltimore City Community College Southwestern 66, Southside Academy 29 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Southside: Carroll 15, Wilson 8, Carter 4, Hill 2. Total: 29. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Southwestern: Taylor 24, O’Neal 20, Syndor 12, Smith 4, Swann 2, Daily 2, James 2. Total: 66. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halftime: Southwestern 29, Southside Academy 6 |
