With 1:31 remaining in the fourth quarter on Friday night, the Gwynn Park High School boys’ basketball team appeared on the verge of collapsing. The Yellow Jackets were clinging to a two-point lead that had been 13 four minutes earlier, had no timeouts and committed three consecutive turnovers.
All this against visiting Potomac — the only team in the Prince George’s County 3A/2A/1A League to beat the Yellow Jackets this season.
Gwynn Park’s next two plays, however, were sensational, and the Yellow Jackets’ 61-55 victory helped turn the race for the league’s top seed into a two-team battle: Gwynn Park against Largo.
“Great win. Resilient win. It’s only going to make us better for the playoffs,” said Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick. “We have to maintain pace with the teams in our region and Largo in our league.”
Following Gwynn Park’s final time out, 6-foot-9 senior Marcel Boyd caught the ball in the low post and fed senior guard Jarvis Hawkins on a backdoor cut, easily beating Potomac’s pressure defense for the layup.
In doing so, Boyd and Hawkins accomplished what the offense had failed to for a majority of the fourth quarter by crisply executing a set play. The bucket gave Gwynn Park (14-4, 13-1) a 55-51 lead. Following a missed jumper by Potomac’s Mark Givens, senior guard Xavier Richards completed a wild right-handed scoop/runner in the lane to increase Gwynn Park’s lead to six with 1:14 remaining. That late-game precision boosted Gwynn Park to its 10th consecutive victory while the Wolverines (12-6, 10-4) had their five-game winning streak snapped.
“We stayed calm throughout the fourth quarter,” Richards said. “That’s really about it. We tried to stay calm and play to our abilities.”
Richards, the 6-foot-2 guard with you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it jumping abilities, finished with a team-high 16 points, Hawkins had 14 (all in the second half) and Boyd finished with a double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks).
“[Potomac was] talking a little trash before the game about how they owned us and how we couldn’t beat them,” Boyd said. “I wanted to go out there and impose our will on them and show them we’re still the team to beat.”
The Yellow Jackets amassed their largest lead, 51-38, with 5:24 remaining, only to see Potomac score 13 of the next 15 points. Even so, Gwynn Park’s shot selection was above average in the second half as Glick’s squad converted 14 of its 22 attempts in the final 16 minutes and finished the game shooting 48.9 percent from the floor (24 of 49).
“We can do big things,” Richards said. “We’ve got good team chemistry. We make things great around here.”
Potomac’s sophomore sensation Dion Wiley led all scorers with 22 points (six 3-pointers). Despite Gwynn Park’s best defensive efforts — tight man-to-man, a box-and-1, aggressive step-outs — Wiley still scored more than a third of his team’s points.
“He’s the best sophomore in our league and one of the best players in our league,” Glick said. “He’s got to be one of the best sophomores in the DMV. “I thought we did a very poor job guarding him from the very first play of the game to the end.”
The Wolverines missed five of their six fourth-quarter free throws, and with the loss likely dropped out of contention for one of the league’s top two spots. Still, after four wins last season, first-year coach Renard Johnson is pleased with the progress in 2012.
“I can’t be disappointed in a loss like this,” Johnson said. “Not just because Gwynn Park is good, but the teams were evenly matched, we were on their home floor, we took their best shot and we put ourselves in a winning position at the end.”
As players filed out of Gwynn Park’s locker room following the game, two assistant coaches could be overheard dissecting the opponent.
“They’re deep. They’re really talented,” one said.
“I wouldn’t want to face them again,” replied the other.
The Yellow Jackets won’t have to, as the teams go to separate regional tournaments — Potomac to the 3A South and Gwynn Park to the 2A South. Glick concurred with his coaching staff.
“They’ve given us the hardest time of anybody in our league,” he said of Potomac. “They’ve done a tremendous job of turning the program around. I’m just happy they’re in 3A.”
ncammarota@gazette.net
Gwynn Park 61, Potomac 55
Potomac 8 12 14 21 — 55
Gwynn Park 16 10 18 17 — 61
Potomac (12-6, 10-4): Dion Wiley 22, Romone Saunders 10, Mark Givens 8, Dondre Brandon 6, Davon Williams 4, Aaron Williams 3, Valshawn Wallace 2
Gwynn Park (14-4, 13-1): Xavier Richards 16, Jarvis Hawkins 14, Marcel Boyd 11, Jalen Harris 10, Agyei Gregory 6, Robert Flint 4
(Mark Gail/The Washington Post) - Gwynn Park's Xavier Richards gets an easy layup in the first quarter as Potomac's Davon Williams looks on.