Natasha Cloud and Alyssa Thomas will be Maryland teammates next season. On Tuesday, however, the two future Terps will be opponents.
Cloud guided Cardinal O'Hara (Pa.) to a gritty 33-23 win over Dowingtown East on Friday.
"After that first half, I had to talk to them in the huddle," said Cloud, who had 10 points (after shooting 0-for-7 in the first half), four rebounds, one assist and one steal. "I told them we had 16 minutes left and I didn't want anyone to leave this gym unless they had left everything they could out there."
Cloud's Cardinal O'Hara squad will meet Thomas' Central Dauphin team in the second round of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AAAA tournament Tuesday. Thomas scored 18 points and assisted on the game-winning 3-pointer in the Rams' 37-36 win over North Penn.
"We knew we weren't losing this game," Thomas said. "Our defensive intensity was high the whole game. And they started to get careless with the ball at the end, and we took advantage of it."• WBOC.com posted a summary late last week of how each member of Maryland's 2010 recruiting class has fared this season.
Alyssa Thomas (Central Dauphin H.S., Harrisburg, Pa.) recently became her high school's all-time leading scorer as she led the squad to its second consecutive District title. Thomas has 659 points this season and 2,194 points in her career. She was recently named the 2010 District 3-AAAA Most Valuable Player after her championship game efforts.
• Terps point guard pledge Terrell Stoglin was edged out by Phoenix North guard Daniel Bejarano, an Arizona commitment, for The Arizona Republic's Big Schools (classes 4A-5A) Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Less than a week after Stoglin helped lead Santa Rita to a two-point win over Gila Region-rival Tucson Amphitheater for his first 4A-II title after three close losses in the final, Bejarano came back with two huge games to lead North to the big-school crown.
• Junior Maryland targets Quinn Cook and Mikael Hopkins powered DeMatha to an 80-70 win over Ballou for the Abe Pollin City Title Game in Washington.
Star guard Quinn Cook scored a game-high 28 points, forward Jerian Grant added 17 and center Mikael Hopkins 13 as DeMatha (30-3) won its fifth City Title in six years.