Digital Harbor High School | Archive | March, 2009

Girls 1A Basketball Final: Digital Harbor 50, Surrattsville 41

Posted on 14 March 2009 by .

Click ‘videos’ above to watch highlights of the game

By Andy States
Digital Sports Content Manager

On most occasions, a 21 percent shooting night from the floor spells certain doom for a basketball team. But in Saturday’s 1A girls basketball championship game, the statistic held little significance.

“We talk about three seasons,” Digital Harbor coach Patrick McDonald said. “The preseason is one. The regular season being the second and the postseason being the third. In the third season it’s not about offense. It’s more about your defense. Can I stop you from scoring?”

And on Saturday night, the answer for McDonald’s Digital Harbor Rams was a resounding yes. The Rams struggled from the floor, but held the Surrattsville Hornets in check all night and never trailed on the way to a 50-41 win at UMBC’s RAC Arena. The state title was the first in program history for Digital Harbor, and completed a 1A sweep of both boys and girls basketball, as the school’s boys team had won its championship earlier in the day in College Park.

“We both made history in our school,” said Digital Harbor junior Asia Logan, “and that’s really exciting.”

Digital Harbor (25-3), which connected on just 12 field goals the entire game, made for of them in the first quarter in opening up a quick 9-0 lead. Logan scored the game’s first basket, and with that, gave the Rams the lead for good. From that point it was the Rams’ defense that took center stage.

A night after the Hornets’ Chanae Shorter ran wild creating offense in a semifinal win over Pocomoke, Surrattsville’s point guard could not duplicate the success.

“We knew that [Shorter] was quick,” Digital Harbor’s Nichelle Groom said, “but when she goes to the hole she’s kind of out of control so we just stepped in and took the offensive charge and we had help-side defense and we communicated.”

But while Surrattsville (22-4) struggled to find its groove offensively, its defense picked up its game and the Hornets slowly clawed back from what was an 11-point halftime deficit.

“One possession at a time,” Surrattsville coach Demario Newman said of his message to the team. “One possession at a time, fight back, get a key stop.”

The Hornets closed to within five points on several occasions, but not until Endia Hill converted on one of two free throws with 3 minutes 29 seconds to play did Surrattsville break inside of that, at 40-36. Shay Evans scored on an ensuing possession to cut the gap to 40-38 — the closest the game had been since 2-0 in the first quarter.

Later, after a pair of Logan free throws, Hill  converted on a three-point play to slice the lead to 42-41 with 50 seconds to play. But Digital Harbor clamped down from that point and went 6 for 6 from the line down the stretch to seal the championship.

Digital Harbor made 24 of 31 free throws on the game, including a 15 of 16 performance from Logan.

“Our coach makes us shoot free throws all the time and if we miss we have to run,” Logan said. “That pushes us to make the next one. If you miss you don’t worry about the miss. You worry about making the next shot.”

The Rams also hauled in 22 offensive rebounds which they turned into 26 second-chance points. Logan scored a team-high 21 points and led the team’s rebounding effort with 13. Ke’Shara Floyd added 17.

Hill paced Surrattsville and led all scorers with 22 points, while BreAnna Gross contributed 10. This was the first state final appearance for Surrattsville, which was in the state tournament for the third consecutive year and only stand to lose three seniors from this year’s roster.

Digital Harbor does not figure to go anywhere, either. The Rams had just one senior listed on their roster.

The Digital Harbor girls were but one part of an astounding day for Baltimore City basketball, as five different programs from the city won state championships. In addition to the Digital Harbor boys and girls in the 1A classification, City College swept the 2A in both boys and girls and the Lake Clifton boys won the 3A title.

“There’s some very fine student-athletes in Baltimore City,” McDonald said. “Some great students who decided they wanted to give of themselves to beomce athletes. What you saw this weekend was the manifestation of that.”

Digital Harbor 50, Surrattsville 41
D    9    19    8    14
S    4    13    12    12
Digital Harbor: Logan 3 15-16 21, Floyd 5 6-9 17, Mitchelle 2 1-1 5, Beckwith 1 1-2 4, Groom 1 1-3 3
Surrattsville: Hill 8 6-9 22, Gross 4 1-1 10, Shorter 1 3-4 5, Evans 1 2-2 4
Three-pointers: Digital Harbor 2 (Beckwith, Floyd); Surrattsville 1 (Gross)

astates@digitalsports.com

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