Late in the first half when No. 3 St. Frances took its first lead of Saturday's game, Roland Park's No. 1 girls basketball team never strayed from its strength — playing as a team.
The Reds quickly erased a two-point St. Frances lead with two assisted baskets — Jaia Alexander to Jeydah Johnson and Aniyah Carpenter to Alexander — to take a three-point lead into the second half. After the break, Johnson immediately hit two assisted 3-pointers to spark a Reds run that would build a 19-point lead by early in the fourth quarter.
That was more than enough to carry visiting Roland Park (11-2) to a 73-61 victory and boost their Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference record to 4-0.
"Practice every day is intense and we're getting to know each other a lot better every day. We trust each other," said Alexander, a junior guard who scored a game-high 28 points. "Our trust and cohesiveness as a unit is growing and you can see it on the court."
Alexander had the hot hand early in an up-tempo physical game, scoring 16 of the Reds' 34 first-half points. She hit two free throws for a 10-5 lead and her follow shot early in the second quarter made it 21-16. But the Reds couldn't shake the Panthers so quickly.
St. Frances also played a team game in the first half and Shawnkia McCallum assisted Mia Davis on the basket that tied the game at 27 with 1:43 to go and fed Davis for the go-ahead basket with about a minute left.
But the lead lasted less than 20 seconds. Alexander assisted Johnson to tie and Alexander scored off an assist by Carpenter, who capped a three-point play for a 34-31 lead at the break.
The Reds didn't need long to grab the momentum in the second half thanks to Johnson's 3-point shooting. The sophomore hit four in the second half and three in the first 4:14 to spark a 19-7 Reds run capped by Lindsey Edwards' driving layup for a 53-38 lead with 2:50 left in the third quarter.
"My coach kept telling me stick with it because in the beginning my shots weren't falling," Johnson said, "so I just had to keep pushing, be determined."
Alexander said if the Reds get jammed inside, they know Johnson is always an option.
"She knows how to move and that's what makes playing with her so special," Alexander said, "because when we go to the basket, we always know she's either going to be in the corner or she's going to slide up and that comes with a team chemistry thing. We know where each other is going to be and we have faith in each other and we trust that she's going to knock down that shot."
Early in the fourth quarter, the Reds built their lead to 19 after Alexander hit two shots and assisted Michala Clay for a layup and a 59-40 lead. St. Frances cut it to 13 on back-to-back baskets by Ilysia Lewis.
"We were down and our heads were already out of it," said St. Frances forward Tyanna Custis, "so we started playing by ourselves instead of as a team, because we wanted to try to score. Instead of playing as a team and playing settled, we sped things up and it got out of hand."
Custis had 13 points and 11 rebounds while Tyeisha Smith also had 13 points.
It was the second straight loss for the Panthers, who won their first 10 games before falling to No. 8 Aberdeen, 63-62, Tuesday at the Title IX Holiday Classic in Washington, DC. The Panthers are 1-1 in the A Conference.
For the Reds, who defeated defending A Conference champ and No. 2 McDonogh on Dec. 17, four starters finished in double figures against St. Frances — Alexander (28 points), Johnson (16), Edwards (15) and Clay with 10 points as well as 10 rebounds.
"I think what makes us really good is I can get 20 points from any one of my five starters on any given night," Reds coach Scott Buckley said. "We stress a lot that what makes us special is you can't guard all of us. If you share the ball, your turn will come … so they really bought into it and they know this isn't the type of team where you're going to average 20 a night, but we'll probably have five kids averaging double digits."