New Town topples Northwestern in latest VSN/Fox 45 Game of the Week

On Thursday evening at the Randallstown Holiday Mixer, New Town’s boys basketball team trailed Northwestern by only three points at the half.  But the Titans realized they could have been on top if they had finished off several easy shots that they missed in the first half.

“At halftime, we realized that we were down by three and we missed at least 12 layups,” said New Town guard Tavon Geter.  

Through three quarters, the Titans struggled to find any offensive consistency. 

Then, in the fourth quarter with their backs against the walls, the Owings Mills school began to stroke the three-ball and came-from-behind to knock off the Wildcats, 58-54, in this week’s edition of the Varsity Sports Network/Fox 45 Game of the Week.

“We dug deep, looked each other in the eyes and had the confidence in our coach to call the right plays and he did,” said Geter.  “We pulled it out in the clutch.”

“We actually played good defense but our offense was poor. Finally in the last three or four minutes of the game, we got some shots to fall,” said New Town coach Mike Salapata.  “They played hard.  The kid’s deserved this win.”

Geter scored a team-high 18 points for New Town (6-1).  Jaylin Clarke caught fire in the fourth quarter and contributed 14 points, while forward Jerrod Lemon added 11.

Guard Tyrell Wilson scored a game-high 20 points for Northwestern, which was coming off a tough double overtime loss to Owings Mills on Tuesday.  Forward Jaylin Sharp, who netted 42 points in that loss, added 14 points for the Wildcats (2-5).

Northwestern led for most of the first half and held a 22-19 advantage at the intermission but New Town pulled even on Tyler Charles’ score with 6:05 left in the third quarter.

Each time the Titans got close though, the Wildcats had an answer.  Wilson and Sharp combined to go on an 8-0 run that put their team ahead 41-31 with 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the Wildcats led 41-33 entering the final quarter.

Trailing 48-38 with 5:33 left in the game, Clarke drilled his second three pointer of the quarter.  Malcolm Brown added a score and Lemon and Clarke hit back-to-back three pointers to complete an 11-0 run that put New Town up by one, 49-48.

“That [go ahead three pointer] was very big. I had a crummy first half so I had to come back and be big for my team,” said Clarke who hit three, threes in the final quarter.  

The score was tied at 52-52 and 54-54 over the next three minutes before Geter drove to the basket and scored, then hit two free throws to give the Titans a win.  

New Town closed the game on a 20-6 run over the last 5:30 minutes.

CLICK RELATED VIDEOS TAB TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS GAME!