Strong second quarter leads Woodlawn boys to victory over Lansdowne in Class 3A North Region semifinals

Third-seeded Woodlawn (14-9) broke open a 10-10 tie in the second quarter with a 17-0 run and cruised to a 61-45 victory over visiting fourth-seeded Lansdowne (14-8) in the Class 3A boys North Region Section I finals.

Junior Tyray Cooper fueled the run with 11 of his game-high 25 points in the quarter.

Cooper hit two of four consecutive Woodlawn 3-pointers and Jeremiah Wilson and Jamare Blakeney hit one each in less than two minutes during the stretch.

“Coach talked about togetherness and aggressiveness, so as we come together we just want to keep winning,” Cooper said.

Kameron Downs (nine points) had three blocked shots in the quarter, but it was the treys that rankled Lansdowne coach Greg Karpers.

“They hit four threes in a row,” Karpers said. “We lost our guy on defense and we are better than that and that is disappointing.”

Lansdowne, which cut the deficit to seven in the third quarter, was led by Jordan Minix, Marcus Sessoms and Teylor Silverman (11 points each).

The Vikings were playing their third straight playoff game without leading inside scorer Tony Green, who broke his pinky in practice.

Despite the loss of Green, they defeated Milford Mill, 68-64, in the first round and top-seeded Parkville, 65-63, in the second round.

“He didn’t play at all in the playoffs, so we kind of reinvented ourselves, we played through the bigs so much early, so when he went out we kind of played more guard-oriented,” Karpers said. “I’m proud of the way the guys were able to change late in the season.”

Woodlawn’s formula for winning has been defense and a pair of steals by Cooper in the second quarter, along with Downs blocked shots, gave them the advantage.

“Coach says I’m real good with my hands, so I know when to reach and when not to reach, so when a person comes down the middle I usually try to swipe it and get out real quick,” said Cooper, an All-Division first team selection.

Downs absorbed his energy.

“He’s a good defender and he brings the best out of the whole team, so when he gets fired up, he gets me fired up and we get everybody fired up,” Downs said.

Woodlawn opened the tournament with a 62-49 triumph over Towson and followed with a 50-49 victory over second-seeded Franklin.

Franklin played and lost to New Town in the Baltimore County championship game, but Woodlawn coach Bobby Richardson fears nobody.

“They are such hard workers,” Richardson said. “We don’t have a 6-7 guy we can throw it into, we don’t have a guy that is going to fill it up from three, we’ve got scrappy, winning, hard-working underclassmen. Whoever it is, we are ready.”

They will play the winner of C. Milton Wright and Dundalk in the region finals and either team will have to prepare for defensive intensity.

“Our defense is our offense. We don’t have great shooters, we score and our defense fuels our offense,”Richardson said. “We are hard to scout because on any given night anybody can lead us in scoring.”

Lansdowne may have been eliminated, but they proved something to coach Karpers.

“I’m just proud of them,” Karpers said. “I don’t think anybody gave us a shot to get out of the first round against Milford, then you got to the one seed Parkville and no one gives you a shot there, we are just little old Lansdowne, people don’t think much about us, but we show up every night and you are going to have to earn it if you are going to beat us.”

Scoring

Woodlawn 61

Tyray Cooper 25, Kameron Downs 9, Jamar Blakeney 9, Kevin Harris 6, Emmanuel Rice 6, Jeremiah Wilson 3, Jordan Allen 3.

Lansdowne 45

Marcus Sessoms 11, Teylor Silverman 11, Jordan Minix 11, Jerald Hurt 7, Chris Jones 5.