No. 4 Eagles come-from-behind to beat Archbishop Carroll in Holly-N-Hoops Mixer

The fourth-ranked McDonogh girls basketball team had its hands full with Archbishop Carroll’s 6-foot-2 center Dominique Powell in the second day of the BBOWS Holly-N-Hoops Mixer.

Powell scored 16 points in the first half and helped the Lions to a 31-30 halftime lead before senior captains Candice Hendricks and Taryn Durant powered the host Eagles to a 62-57 victory.

“We’ve really struggled defending size,” McDonogh coach Brad Rees said of his team’s problems handling Powell.  “Our tallest kid is 5-foot-10, so we really rely on the team concept of help rotation and we just weren’t getting that in the first half.”

He added: “In the first half [Powell] had 16 points including eight from the foul line but I thought we did a much better job in the second half of sagging in and helping out. Marin Kobb did a great job of fronting her and everyone else stepped up to help like they were supposed to.”

McDonogh’s second half defensive effort held Powell to just four points during the rest of the game and turned turnovers into points.

“We came out and didn’t really play [good] defense,” said Hendricks.  “We came out really frantic on offense but we tried to pull it together a little bit, we still have some things to work on but I’m glad we came out with the win.”

Hendricks scored a team-high 19 points and Durant added 18 for host McDonogh, which won its eighth straight game to improve to 8-2.  Juniors Tiersa Winder and Kobb combined for 16 points.

“I didn’t even realize that,” Hendricks said of her team winning eight consecutive games. “We’re a really young team with just two seniors so it’s been a work in progress.”

The Eagles outscored Archbishop Carroll, 14-4, in the third quarter and after a layup by Hendricks, McDonogh had a 44-35 advantage entering the fourth quarter.

Behind Turner, the Lions cut their once 11-point deficit to 50-46 with 4:00 remaining but the Eagles went 10-for-10 from the free throw line down the stretch to hold off Archbishop Carroll.  Durant went 8-for-8 in the final five minutes.

“It all started with our defense,” Rees explained.  “I think we tend to wear teams down a little bit with the way we get up-and-down the court.  I think [Archbishop Carroll] wore down.”

McDonogh will face perennial Montgomery County powerhouse Paint Branch on Wednesday at St. Timothy’s at 6 p.m in the final day of the Holly-N-Hoops Mixer.

CLICK RELATED VIDEOS TAB TO VIEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS GAME!