The last time a highly ranked team from Baltimore faced one of the Washington area's top teams was in March when Southern-B defeated Crossland, then No. 1 in Washington, in the state 4A semifinals.
Last night, No. 4 Southwestern met Dunbar of Washington, ranked No. 2 in the D.C. area, at the Function in the Junction Mixer at Walbrook, with Dunbar coming out on top, 77-66.
Senior forward Michael Gill, who is heading for Pittsburgh, led all scorers with 27 points. Frank McQueen added 23. Ernie Evans led Southwestern with 21 points, and Reginald Johnson contributed 15.
The Sabers had a 66-63 advantage with 2:30 remaining in the game, but the Crimson Tide (4-1) scored the final 14 points.
"We've got kids who are so selfish that they want to score," said Southwestern coach Terry Leverette. "It's hard to win when you're not playing the team concept."
After taking the 66-63 lead, the Sabers (3-1) missed their final seven attempts from the field and turned the ball over twice.
Xavier Singletary gave Dunbar, which is ranked behind the nation's No. 1 team, DeMatha, the lead back at 67-66 with two free throws, then Gill scored the next six points, pushing the lead to 73-66.
"We have had some tough games and we just came together tonight," said Dunbar coach Lafayette Moseley. "They were killing us with drives to the basket, so we pulled out into a zone and that helped us a lot."
In other games, No. 5 Walbrook handled Largo, 81-57, and No. 3 St. Frances defeated No. 14 Edmondson, 63-47.
The Panthers (5-0) were without sophomore forward Mark Karcher, their leading scorer. St. Frances coach William Wells said Karcher didn't play because of a "school-related problem." Wells said Karcher will be back in the starting lineup tonight against Southwestern.
Alphonso Jones scored a game-high 23 points to lead St. Frances. Keon Chavez and Charles Beaufort each contributed 10 points.
Leading 38-35 entering the final period, St. Frances outscored the Redskins 10-2 to build a 48-37 advantage as Chavez and Jones each scored four.
"Of course, we wanted Mark out there with us, but we had to put that aside and try to win," said Jones, a 6-foot-1 junior guard who transferred from Douglass. "We had to focus our attention on playing good team ball."
That was something Edmondson didn't do. The Panthers were able to take advantage of poor second-half shooting by the Redskins (3-1), who shot 8-for-28 in the final 16 minutes.
After closing to within 34-33, with 3:31 remaining, Edmondson failed to converted another field goal until 20 seconds remained in the third. The Redskins opened the final period with a three-minute drought.
"This is the worst we have played in two seasons," said Edmondson coach James James. "In the second half, we only went to the foul line one time, which meant we weren't getting the ball down in the paint."
Walbrook (3-1) received 22 points from Travone Broadway, who returned after missing Tuesday's 69-64 victory over Carver with a sprained right ankle. Chris Reynolds added 20 points in the victory over Largo of Prince George's County.
Today's games will include St. Frances vs. Southwestern, in a matchup of two of the area's top-five programs at 6:15. The host Warriors will take on Dunbar (D.C.) in the finale tonight at 7:45.