Wilde Lake coach Deon Wingfield is watching his team mature right before his eyes.
On Tuesday at the IAABO Board 290 Memorial Mixer against Douglass, the Wildecats showed poise and toughness down the stretch to finish the game on a 20-7 run and pull out a 76-61 victory. After a 1-2 start, the team has now rolled off four consecutive wins.
"We are really gelling together now," Wingfield said. "People don't realize, but we only had three guys back from varsity last year and everyone else was new, so we were figuring out roles at the beginning. Now we're starting to click and doing what I envisioned we could do."
Tuesday's victory over a Douglass squad that came into the game at 2-1 overall, took battling through several tenuous situations.
Wilde Lake was ahead 20-10 through the first seven minutes and still led by seven, 25-18, three minutes into the second quarter. But Douglass closed the half with several big baskets to erase the deficit and actually take a 34-32 lead into the break.
Back-to-back baskets by the Mighty Ducks to open the third increased the advantage to six, putting Wilde Lake in its biggest hole of the game.
But that's when Devaughn Garner, the Wildecats leading scorer on the season who had been held to four points in the first half, began taking over.
He hit a 3-pointer to spark a quick 6-0 spurt to pull Wilde Lake back even at 38-38 and then hit a couple more key shots in the quarter to help the Wildecats establish a 53-50 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Then, after Douglass had pulled back within two at 56-54, Garner scored eight straight points to start a closing run that put the game away.
"I feel like I wasn't going to the ball and being aggressive enough (in the first half)," said Garner, who finished with a game-high 22 points. "I knew my defender wasn't going to be able to guard me one-on-one so I tried to go with that."
While he did a lot of the heavy lifting late, Garner had plenty of help in the scoring department. Devaughn's twin brother, Dante, finished the game with 11 points, including six points in the fourth quarter. Eric Handy (17 points) and Anthony Miller (17) chipped in with huge efforts as well, playing particularly big roles in the first half.
"We have a number of different weapons right now and I like that balance," Wingfield said. "It's not just the twins out there. We have a bunch of guys who can have a big game on any given night."
The Wildecats are back in action on Wednesday at 10 a.m. against Mervo in the second day of tournament play.
"We have to keep our intensity up like it was today," Garner said. "We can't relax, because that's when we start turning the ball over and we lose like (the) Howard and Mt. Hebron (games). If we take care of the ball, we can beat anyone."
Wilde Lake 76, Douglass 61
WL (4-2, 5-2): Devaughn Garner 22, Handy 17, Miller 17, Dante Garner 11, Parris 3, McNeel 2, Mynatt 3.
D (1-1, 2-2): Elliott 19 Johnson 12, McNair 10, William 7, Vernie 7, Ebron 6.
Half: 34-32 D.
Other games:
Ben Franklin-Massonville 57, Centennial 56
Centennial also made the trip to Northwestern High School for the IAABO Mixer, but the Eagles walked away Tuesday with a far more disappointing result than their Wilde Lake counterparts. Massonville's Parrish Wragg (9 points) stepped to the foul line with no time left on the clock and made one of two free throws to earn a one-point victory.
The foul shot capped a Bayhawk comeback from being down by as many as 18 points, 33-15, in the second quarter. Centennial just simply couldn't find the basket down the stretch, scoring just two points over the final 5:37 to allow Massonville to close the game on a 14-2 run.
"We need to do a better job of running team offense and recognizing match-ups in pressure situations," Centennial coach Chad Hollwedel said. "There were points, particularly in the first half, when we did some good things, but we didn't sustain that effort.
"Second- and third-shot opportunities for them killed us down the stretch."
Keonte Potts, who had scored the Eagles' first seven points of the fourth quarter to stake his team to a 54-43 lead, finished with a game-high 24 points. Omari Ringgold chipped in with 14 points for Centennial.
But come crunch time, there were just a few too many turnovers for the Eagles, who dropped their first game of the season. On the final play, Wragg stole an inbounds pass at midcourt with three seconds left and while dribbling toward the basket was fouled as time expired. He missed the first free throw, but made the second to win the game.
Leon Fleming led Massonville with 21 points.
M (4-3): Fleming 21, Mont 16, Wragg 9, Hodge 4, Barr 3, Thompson 2, Graves 2.
C (6-0, 6-1): Potts 24, Ringgold 14, Goldsmith 5, Tinuoye 3, Benson 2, Peterson 2, Klima 2, Eads 2, Adams 2.
Half: 38-26 C.
Hammond 47, Severna Park 43
Ha (3-3, 4-4): Turner 12, Green 11, Echols 8, Lashley 7, Hendrick 5, Blackwell 4.
SP: Kitzmiller 11, Keith 10, Daldi 9, Harris 7, Green 2, Cook 2, Irwin 2.
Half: 19-8 Ha.
Richard Montgomery 66, Long Reach 55
RM: Senou 18, Sharps 14, Maddox 12, Sigaran 11, Hakimi 5, Gaynor 4, Robertson 2.
LR (2-4, 3-6): Taylor 13, Hargrove 12, Allmond 10, Leconte 7, Ross 4, Fisk 4, Stewart 3, Nobleman 2.
Half: 29-24 RM.
Paint Branch 70, Howard 39
PB: Radway 11, Hackley 9, Galloway 8, Tolliver 8, Onukaogu 7, Roberts 4, Smith 4, Bagayoko 3, Gray 3, Hart 3, Ho 3, Scott 3, Harris 2, Willis 2.
Ho (2-4, 2-6): Wendt 10, Alexander 9, Dyer 6, J. Bartnik 5, Marsh 4, Crisco 2, Mills 2, Wood 1.
Half: 38-21 PB.