There was a point in the first half of yesterday's game against No. 16 Mount Hebron when nothing could stop Poly forward John McLean.
"I felt it," said McLean, who scored 25 points in the half on 5-for-5 three-point shooting. "Everything was dropping, and I wanted to get as many shots as I could while I felt that way."
For the host Engineers, there was plenty of that feeling to go around.
Unranked Poly hit 11 three-pointers for the game, racing out to a 51-22 lead before holding off the Vikings, 87-73.
McLean finished with 33 points on 9-for-14 shooting, leading an Engineers team that at times seemed as if it couldn't miss.
During a shocking 15-minute stretch in the first half, Poly (3-4) scored 51 of the game's 71 points, shooting 61 percent from the field and hitting seven three-pointers.
It was enough to leave the Vikings shellshocked.
"I've never seen a high school team shoot that well -- never," said Mount Hebron coach Scott Robinson, whose 11-year coaching career included a seven-year stint at Loyola. "It was just an incredible shooting display. They made some incredible shots.
At least three of McLean's three-pointers would have been good from NBA distance, and his accuracy rubbed off on teammates Justin Robinson (18, four threes), Brad Thomas (16) and Dwain ** States (12, two threes).
"The first half was the best we've played all year," said Justin Robinson, who helped his team survive a third-quarter Vikings run by scoring all but two of his points in the second half.
But for a while, it seemed as if Mount Hebron (4-2) might be on its way to a great comeback.
"I figured that if we could get out to a big lead we could win. We really got our chemistry together today."
Trailing 55-33 early in the second half, the Vikings outscored the Engineers, 26-10, to pulled to within six points with 7:32 to play. Six-foot-6 center Patrick Ngongba had his way in the paint, scoring 33 points against an undersized defense.
But making that run took a lot out of the Vikings. Down the stretch, they appeared tired and Poly again began to take command.
"I told the kids never, never give up," said Robinson, "but sometimes you can expend so much energy coming back that you have nothing left in the end."
McLean's performance led Poly coach Bucky Kimmett to draw comparisons between the junior and former Engineers football/basketball standout Antonio Freeman, now a red-shirt senior at Virginia Tech.
"They shoot a lot alike," said Kimmett. "[McLean] is still learning how to play the game, but he's just a great shooter."
On a day when almost nothing could go wrong for Poly, however, nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Vikings.
They made only seven of 25 shots from the field in the first half. Guard Kurtis Jestes -- last year's Howard County Player of the Year -- did not score his first basket until well into the third quarter.