COLLEGE PARK — The New Town boys basketball team was a constant work in progress this winter, their season a steady climb. The Titans reached championship quality Saturday.
New Town started fast against Lake Clifton in the Class 1A state final, and when the No. 2 Lakers' late push came, the Titans were ready.
With four seconds left, junior guard Matthew Johnson completed his fine shooting day, hitting two free throws to seal a 55-51 win at Xfinity Center for New Town's second state championship.
Johnson made four of five shots from the field and all five of his free throws to finish with a team-high 16 points. Junior forward Quincy Roche added 15 points and nine rebounds for New Town (19-6), which closed out the season with eight straight wins.
"it was a tremendous effort," New Town coach Mike Daniel said. "A lot of hard work went into this, and we stumbled quite a bit early on. But I knew, sooner or later, once we got it together, I thought we could get somewhere near to, if not [win], a state championship. Everything kind of worked out for us."
Lake Clifton (25-3), which got a game-high 18 points from senior forward Derrick Green, came into Saturday's game with a resume that included the Baltimore City Division I championship and a 4-for-4 record in state title games.
The Titans weren't fazed.
They led from start to finish, building a 25-12 lead late in the first half with the help of a 10-point second quarter from Roche. Matching the Lakers on the boards and outshooting them from the field, New Town led 29-20 at halftime. Johnson and Kuante Sargent hit key early 3-pointers, and Malik Jones hit two last-second free throws for a 41-32 lead entering the fourth quarter.
The Lakers have responded favorably to most every challenge this season, thriving in the face of adversity, and sparked its expected run with hard work on defense and the boards. When Green converted his second three-point play, the Lakers had pulled to within 49-48 with 2:41 to play.
That's when New Town junior guard Devin Smith made his biggest contribution, answering with a running layup on the next possession and scoring on another drive with 1:04 to play to give the Titans a 53-49 lead.
The Lakers again made it a one-possession game on an inside basket by Rashad Hawkins with 43 seconds left, and got the ball back on a turnover with 30 seconds left. But unlike most other times this season, the Lakers didn't have an answer. With a chance to tie or take the lead, Gary Jefferson missed a baseline jumper, and Green grabbed the rebound but lost control trying to go back up.
Johnson was fouled with four seconds left. In 2012, New Town was primed to upset No. 1 Dunbar for the state title but ended up going 13-for-35 from the line in a 54-52 loss. This time, Johnson left no doubts. His first shot hit the from rim and went in. His second found nothing but net.
"It was clutch. I knew I had to make them. We got a state championship," Johnson said.
The Lakers, meanwhile, had started No. 6 in The Baltimore Sun's preseason poll, behind fellow Baltimore City schools Patterson and Edmondson. Led by a strong senior class, they finished with Baltimore City bragging rights and the North region crown. Saturday just wasn't their day.
"We had a good season, a great season," forward Joshua Parks said. "We just came up short. It didn't end like we wanted it to."
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