In much the same fashion in which the school’s girls’ basketball team prevailed on Tuesday, the Thomas Stone High School boys basketball team used a 20-0 run in the first quarter en route to a 76-45 victory over visiting Calvert High in a 2A South Region playoff opener.
Stone (14-9), which was scheduled to face Westlake on Thursday, got ample production inside from Ty Woodland and point guard Jonas Agyeman, who ran the floor well for the Cougars. Calvert (2-22) had stayed close through the early stages of the game, trailing 8-5 midway through the first quarter before the Cougars responded with an emphatic 20-0 run that removed all doubt about the outcome.
“Ty was just a man inside tonight,” said Stone coach Dale Lamberth, whose team on Thursday was set to face Westlake, an 88-46 winner over Patuxent on Tuesday. “I told him before the game high school season is over, you have to play like a man now. But I think the other big difference with this team is having Jonas at point guard. Since we’ve moved him, we’ve lost a couple of close games, but we’re a much better team.”
Calvert did not record a victory in any of its 18 Southern Maryland Athletic Conference regular season games and the Cavaliers were forced to face a genuinely difficult foe in the first round of the postseason. After staying close through the early stages, the Cavaliers were felled by the Cougars’ 20-0 run to end the first although they continued to play hard despite occasionally facing a running clock deficit.
“These guys played hard for me all season,” Calvert coach Tim Contee said. “They never gave up. Tonight we started out OK, but we just gave up too many easy baskets inside. We also struggled offensively and then we gave up too many second chance baskets on defense.”
Stone began the second quarter in the same fashion in which it ended the first with buckets inside from Woodland and Kaden Jackson and a three-pointer from Agyeman. On three different occasions the Cougars pushed the advantage to 28 points before the hosts settled for a 48-22 lead at the intermission.
Calvert’s Jalen Barnes opened the third quarter with a pair of buckets before the Cougars again responded with another pivotal run. Agyeman and Jackson each scored twice as the hosts embarked on a 13-3 run that ended with another basket from Barnes. Stone closed out the quarter with two quick buckets inside from Agyeman for a 67-31 advantage.
Barnes scored the Cavaliers first seven points of the fourth quarter to keep the Cavaliers under the 35-point running clock deficit, but buckets from Micah Carroll and Ahmed Thames enabled the Cougars to maintain ad advantage of at least 30 points over the final two minutes.
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