Who could blame Roland Park Country School's basketball players for believing their first-ever Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship was within their grasp last February?
The Roland Park Reds led McDonogh School by nine points in the middle of the third quarter and were on the verge of claiming the elusive crown.
But it slipped away. The McDonogh Eagles grabbed the momentum and finished with a 56-46 victory.
"It was a meltdown in the fourth quarter," said Roland Park assistant basketball coach Dani Kell Steinbach, a former Roland Park and College of William & Mary player and a Timonium native. "I think it hit all of us hard."
But it appears that devastating loss has motivated this year's Reds to become the most focused and hard-working team that Reds head coach Scott Buckley has seen in his 19 years on the job.
"The team really worked hard in the off-season," said Buckley, of Timonium, who played for Towson High. "It was a very disappointing loss [last year] and they were disappointed in themselves — they knew they had to come back stronger.
Steinbach agreed: "We're on a mission. We have one unified goal this year, across the board from the players to the coaching staff. It was a goal that we established at the end of last season and everyone has bought into it."
It is reflected in the Reds' ranking. Roland Park, led by two senior standouts — guard/forward Lindsey Edwards and forward Michala Clay — earned its first No. 1 ranking in school history in the Baltimore Sun's high school girls basketball poll on Dec. 23. The Reds stayed there for five weeks before a 50-45 loss to Seton Keough on Jan. 30 dropped them to No. 2 behind McDonogh.
On Monday, McDonogh beat Roland Park, 56-45, to avenge a 15-point loss in December. At one point in the earlier meeting, the Reds led 40-11 before cruising to victory.
Looking forward to the IAAM A Conference Tournament, Buckley brushed off the latest defeat.
"I love our chances," he said. "It's a long season. We're playing the No. 1 or No. 2 in the area on their home floor. This is a game McDonogh should win. It's the same thing I said back in December when we won. Nobody won a championship tonight. They won a conference game and get a bye on Tuesday."
Roland Park has a 9-2 record in the IAAM A Conference, the area's toughest league. The Reds are 18-4 overall.
"They are an exceptional group of athletes and basketball players. They are obviously hungry to succeed," McDonogh coach Brad Rees said.
Buckley doesn't need to say much to his already highly motivated players, although with his 30 years as a basketball coach he doesn't lack the experience to know just what to say.
The 49-year-old Buckley for 10 years ran some highly competitive Amateur Athletic Union teams, including the 16-U Towson-based Maryland Tornados. He also coached 13-to-14-year-old Towson Recreation boys teams for seven years.
If the Reds reach the championship game, it will be the fourth time under Buckley since the IAAM formed in 1999. Roland Park has lost its three previous times there.
"I think the feeling of being in that locker room after that loss, that stays with you," Buckley said. "When you are working all summer, fall and winter, you are working so you won't have that feeling again. There's no guarantee that you won't have it, but you never want to look back and say, 'I could have worked harder.' We want to have no regrets," Buckley said.
McDonogh and Roland Park could meet again in the championship game on Feb. 15 at Stevenson University, where Lindsey Edwards and her cousin, Dani Edwards, McDonogh's starting point guard, would once again compete for the title.
"[A championship] would definitely be awesome," said Francesca Whitehurst, the Reds' 5-foot-6 senior guard. The Roland Park resident sparks the team off the bench with tenacity by guarding the opponent's point guard. "We especially deserve to be in the championship game this year because of all the hard work we've put into this season."
"We're not going to get too high," said Jaia Alexander, of Towson, junior starting point guard. "We're going to continue to stay focused and reach our goal."
In pursuit of that goal, the Reds have delivered Buckley's 300th career triumph with a 70-51 victory over host Seton Keough on Jan. 7.
"I've really never thought of it like that," said Buckley, responding to a question of where that milestone ranks in his coaching career. "It should really be all about the kids and not about me. I would like to think my best accomplishments are the kids that get to go on to play at the next level."
On that same night in January, Lindsey Edwards scored her 1,000th career point.
Edwards has averaged more than 12 points per game and co-captains the team with Clay. She now has scored 1,116 points, which ranks fourth on the school's all-time scoring list behind Steinbach with 1236.
'Always together'
Clay, Edwards and Whitehurst have been varsity teammates for four years while Alexander, senior forward Mellie Poggi, of Towson, senior guards Caroline Pate, also of Towson, and Jenna Baverman, and junior guards Ryan Holder and Anna Hauser are three-year varsity players.
"We're always together," said Whitehurst, Roland Park's leading scorer in soccer last year and a 2015 U.S. under-19 women's lacrosse team member. "We are a really, really close team. I play other sports, too, and it's not like any other team at Roland Park."
Buckley appreciates the camaraderie.
"On the court, the more we play together, the more we trust each other," Buckley said. "That's been the key this year. This is a very unique situation, where you have this many kids that have been around so long. This is a really great group."
The starting lineup of Edwards, Clay, Alexander, Holder and sophomore guard/forward Jeydah Johnson offers leadership and plenty of scoring options.
"All five kids are Division I basketball players," Buckley said. "All five starters. I think we are crazy talented. What makes us dangerous is that we have really good balanced scoring, and anyone of those five starters can score 20 points at any given time."
McDonogh's Rees has great respect for Roland Park's players, and for Buckley.
"I think the kids play off his emotion and passion that he puts into the game," Rees said. "It translates onto the court."
"He doesn't need the recognition," Steinbach said. "I don't think that is something he is seeking. He has a lot of pride for Roland Park. He is proud of the girls and he just wants the best for them."