On the heels of the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference boys basketball championship that devolved into a lopsided affair in the second half, the North Point High School girls team made quick work of Leonardtown in the SMAC girls basketball title game en route to a 52-21 victory over the Raiders for the Eagles’ 10th such title.
North Point (18-5) has spent parts of the season facing quality girls basketball teams from outside the area and the Eagles’ five losses all came in those meetings. But longtime coach Mike Serpone weighed the significance of the competition much more than how it would impact his team’s final win-loss record and now the Eagles have their sights set on bigger goals.
“For me, this is the expectation every year,” Serpone said of the SMAC girls basketball championship. “We’ve won it all but twice and one year we didn’t play because of COVID then last year St. Charles got it. Our defensive intensity was very good tonight. The effort was there from start to finish. We still have some things we need to work on offensively, but our bread and butter is our defense.”
North Point had needed overtime to defeat Leonardtown just three weeks earlier when the Eagles prevailed 50-48 on the road. But after the opening minutes of play transpired on Tuesday in the conference championship game, overtime was perhaps the furthest thing from the minds of the players and coaches from both squads as North Point limited Leonardtown to just one field goal while forging a 14-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“You have to give North Point credit for coming out and playing with a lot of defensive intensity,” Leonardtown coach Tylita Butler said. “They took us out of our game early. Even though we were down [20-8] at halftime, I thought the girls came out and played with a lot of energy in the second half. We’ll put this one behind us and maybe we’ll see them again in the region.”
North Point virtually sealed the verdict in the third quarter as sophomore Layla Woodward opened the frame with a three-point field goal then senior Morgan Dow converted a turnover into a layup for a 25-8 lead. Later in the period, Eagles’ freshman Mya Gant connected on a short jumper then senior Ranya Hewlett added a three-pointer of her own for a 32-13 lead.
North Point extended the advantage to 36-13 before Leonardtown’s Gretchen Fleck ended the third quarter with a layup. Although already comfortably ahead, the Eagles extended the margin further during the early stages of the fourth quarter on buckets from Karrington Boyd and Hewlett, with Fleck again providing the only points for the Raiders during a 10-2 North Point run.
Both North Point and Leonardtown will likely have one home game to start the 4A East Region playoffs when the basketball tournament draw is unveiled on Sunday.
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