With a hip flexor, Park senior point guard Michael Ginsburg wasn't sure if he would play against visiting Saints Peter and Paul Thursday night. After noticing some improvement during warm-ups, Bruins coach Justin McKnight elected to bring Ginsburg off the bench to start the second quarter.
The Sabres of Easton took advantage of his absence, jumping out to a 7-2 margin and leading by two points after the first quarter.
But three quarters and 13 points later, Park had a 55-39 victory in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association C Conference game.
"He had a nagging injury and we just wanted to make sure he was OK," McKnight said. "We were slow without him. Once he got in there, he was pushing the ball and he went into the paint and distributed well."
Drew Goldfarb finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for the Bruins while teammate Wayne Cottman added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Park (12-4 overall, 9-2 league) started the second quarter on a 6-0 run to go ahead 13-9 and led 18-15 at halftime.
The Bruins began to pull away in the third quarter. A 9-0 spurt helped the winners to a 27-15 bulge midway through the period.
On the verge of being blown out, Park went on a 15-2 run to open the final quarter.
"We were playing a much slower team and we were playing at their pace in the first half," said McKnight, whose team sits in second place in the league behind Indian Creek School, of, Annapolis. "So in the second half, we just got out and ran. We were a fast break team and we were able to get a spark off of that. We took control."
Jake Abrams contributed five points and eight rebounds for Park. Gil D'Albora led the Sabres (1-7, 5-8) with 21 points.