New Town senior Sydney Hines made every shot she took in the second quarter and added six clutch points in the final quarter to help stem a Catonsville charge as the Titans prevailed, 52-45, Wednesday night in a girls basketball showdown at Catonsville High School.
Hines scored a game-high 19 points, but it was in the second quarter when her hot shooting carried New Town (7-0).
"Sydney had a great first half," Catonsville coach Mike Mohler said.
She made all four of her field goal attempts and hit a pair of free throws to help the Titans take a 29-25 lead into intermission.
"I get in the gym more and in practice we have been shooting more, so I think that really helped," Hines said.
"She can get on fire," New Town coach Gina Young said.
Mariah Smith had five of the other six points for the Titans in the period.
Catonsville (6-3) only trailed 13-12 after the first quarter, but they misfired on six of eight free throws.
They stayed close in the second period thanks to four free throws from senior Renee Gast (team-high 16 points, 12 rebounds) and the boardwork of freshman Jasmine Dickey, who grabbed five rebounds and scored four points in the quarter.
The Comets switched from a man-to-man to a zone in the second half and the Titans committed three turnovers in the first 90 seconds.
A follow-up basket from Gast and drive and score by Tiara Horne tied the game at 29-29 and forced the Titans to call a time out.
"We fell off on defense," Young said. "We stopped looking for that person on the wing and we got comfortable and you can't get comfortable against Catonsville at all because once they get started passing the ball to the big girl and she gets open and it's a done deal.
Instead, it was New Town reserve guard Candis Taylor who came up all aces after the time out.
She scored a conventional three-point play and followed that up with a trey from beyond the arc for a 35-29 lead with 4:35 remaining.
Taylor finished with 11 points and guard Keyair'a Wilson contributed six points in the second half and the Titans never trailed again.
"I thought there guards did a great job," Catonsville coach Mike Mohler said.
The Comets pulled within six twice in the final quarter, but the Titans responded with clutch three-point baskets.
The first came from Hines and the second was deposited from way beyond the arc by Taylor with one second left on the 30-second clock.
"We could just never get over the hump," said Mohler, who squad had beaten River Hill and Walkersville in a holiday tournament, but had seven days off after that.
Despite shooting just 27 percent from the field and making just 13 of 25 from the foul line, the Comets did outrebound the Titans 40-21 and they forced 23 turnovers.
"We knew Catonsville was going to bring it and if we did what we needed to do on defense and offense it would come out positive for us," Young said.
Scoring
New Town: Hines 19, Candis Taylor 11, Smith 7, Destiney Taylor 6, Wilson 6 Thompson 2, Driver 1
Catonsville: Renee Gast 16, Wichhart 8, Dickey 6, Jen Gast 5, Barrett 4, Horne 2, Bennett 2, Daniels 2