If Catonsville junior Eric Sheppard didn't believe that practice makes perfect, he might after a career-high 27 points led the Comets to a 54-42 boys basketball victory over Lansdowne Friday night at Lansdowne High School.
It was the first loss for Lansdowne (7-1) and evened Catonsville's record (5-5) in the first Baltimore County league game for both teams.
"I wasn't really thinking about that [career-high]. I was just in a zone," said Sheppard, who made three three-pointers from the same left corner in the first quarter to vault the Comets to a 15-9 lead.
"In practice yesterday, I think he knocked down five in a row from that same corner and it carried over today," Catonsville coach Matt Fannon said.
Sheppard hit five of six three-pointers in the first half when he scored 17 points.
"Last game against New Town I wasn't shooting a lot, so in practice I was just working on shooting and getting my confidence back, so this game I just came out shooting and then I had all the confidence in the world."
Catonsville led, 29-19, at halftime, but it wasn't just Sheppard doing the damage.
Six-foot-6 senior Musa Wichhart (8 points) had seven of his 12 rebounds in the first half and 6-6 classmate Antwan Pearson (10 points) blocked three shots and grabbed four of his game-high 14 rebounds in the opening half.
"We knew they presented a problem coming in because they had the two bigs [Pearson and Wichhart) and [Sheppard] from the outside and we knew we had to close out on him and make him put it on the floor and we didn't go a good job of that," Lansdowne coach Greg Karpers said.
The Vikings were sparked by five points and four steals in the first half by Deshawn Bell and five points and three rebounds from Bobby Peterson.
Lansdowne switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half and slowly cut the deficit.
Sheppard didn't have any treys in the third quarter, but he scored six and Wichhart and Pearson scored four each for all 14 Comets points which ended with them leading 43-36.
The Vikings were sparked by three pointers from Antoine Jones and DaQuan Williams and four points and three assists from Bell.
Jones had two steals in the third quarter, but his relentless defense keyed Viking 5-0 run early in the fourth quarter that cut the lead to 43-41 after a baby hook from Kyndell Overton with 6:30 left in the game.
"He just puts his nose in there and he'll play anybody and he'll just worry about playing defense," Karpers said.
But Catonsville changed its press defense and reserve guard Jamal Jones spearheaded an 11-1 scoring run to end the game.
"I challenged them to step up and play defense and we switched from a zone press to a man-to-man press, so that's when I think we started to be effective," Fannon said. "Out of all the games we've played, I think this is the one where they were the most intense."
"We've just been working on intensity because in the beginning of the year we were lacking that," Sheppard said.
They also got more aggressive on the boards.
Catonsville outrebounded Lansdowne 13-7 in the final quarter and 37-23 in the game.
"It's disappointing because the effort and attitude was there and we feel like we should have come down here with a win and that's the frustrating part," Karpers said. "They hit a couple more shots than we did tonight."
Sheppard certainly had a lot to do with that.
Scoring
Catonsville: Sheppard 27, Pearson 10, Wichhart 8, Parrish 5, Chambers 2, Johnson 2.
Lansdowne: Williams 9, Bell 9, Peterson 7, Purnell 6, Overton 5, Jones 3, McCarthy 3.