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HIGH SCHOOL
Shawn Jones scores 24 as Meade boys basketball dispatches Indian Creek, 76-61
By Katherine Fominykh
Capital Gazette

Dec 19, 2022 at 9:16 pm

The Meade boys basketball team that defeated Indian Creek on Friday isn’t a complete package yet. The Mustangs just finished their fourth game — and fourth win — and are still ironing out the wrinkles that formed in the offseason.

But when Meade is on, it’s on. A mix of seasoned returners and sparkling newcomers proved why it’s still the team to watch in the county by controlling the second half and engineering a 76-61 victory over Indian Creek on Monday.

The game was a return of sorts for Eagles coach Pete Corriero, who coached the Mustangs to two state championships. But it didn’t feel like a homecoming for Corriero, who teaches many of the Meade players in his gym class. It’s also been five years since he coached the team, he said. That’s a lot of time, especially now in a post-quarantine-era.

For him, Monday was about focusing on Indian Creek and the future.

“This game helps us in the long run,” he said, “with a hard physical team to get us in the right place before the MIAA conference play starts.”

The Eagles (9-6) packed their first month with a sampling of teams from the MIAA A Conference to the cream of the public school crop. Corriero wanted to sharpen his players’ chemistry and speed before conference play.

Against Meade (4-0), he saw some of the same mistakes he knows his team will correct with time: stopping teams in transition, unforced turnovers and rebounding.

“We take great pride in teams that can box out and rebound. I’m not saying the effort isn’t there, but there’s a technique to it — and we’re not there yet,” Corriero said.

For Meade, the win comes just a few days after an “emotional” battle with rival Arundel on Friday and lies two days before one against Old Mill. Despite some new faces — such as Zamar Jones who netted four 3-pointers on Monday — this, by coach Mike Glick’s perspective, is pretty much the same team as last year’s that simply needs to shake off some rust.

“We just have to get better,” Glick said. “[Indian Creek is] a good team and we weathered the storm.”

Continuity of offense is the key. Meade flourished in transition, on 3-point shooting and in the paint in the last year, and did the same in spurts Monday. Shawn Jones, a 6-foot-6 senior who scored 24 points, sparked many of Meade’s runs,

When it became clear that Indian Creek couldn’t manage the whole floor, Meade snapped at the advantage. Kyree Scott, Zamar Jones and Shawn Jones steadily built Meade’s 12-1 lead. But it was a thin, toppling tower of a lead, as the Eagles soon proved.

Corriero’s came out of a timeout on a run. Defensively, Kyndall Crawford (14 points) consumed the floor, along with Kyle Harvin (15 points), picking the ball from a Mustangs squad growing increasingly frantic with every passing point.

The Eagles scored 13 straight, bypassing Meade on a basket from Aiden Evans (12 points).

While Meade struggled to accomplish much in the paint, it still possessed an ace on the perimeter. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Zamar Jones regained control for the Mustangs, who led 20-14 after one quarter.

“We have to quit fouling … and we have to do a better job of sharing the basketball and get the ball to the other person to get the shots,” Glick said. “We’re not playing our best basketball, but it’s early. It’s all about improvement.”

But Meade was still waiting on someone, a figure they’d come to rely on for two years and struggled to turn up against Indian Creek’s box-and-one defense.

The Joneses set the table and cleared the plates, particularly Shawn, who netted 12 points by halftime. But when Xavion Roberson started opening up inside and outside, the Mustangs put distance between themselves and their guests, leading at the half, 40-32.

The energy was too slow, intensity too muffled for Meade’s liking. They talked about picking it up at halftime.

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No. 9 Mustangs make free throws down stretch to remain undefeated in boys basketball

By Trevor Colgan
Published on: December 17, 2022 9:44 AM EST

Meade basketball coach Mike Glick talks strategy with his team during Friday evening’s Anne Arundel County boys contest with Arundel. The No. 9 Mustangs improved to 4-0 with a hard fought 84-78 victory in Gambrills.
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Meade High boys basketball coach Mike Glick challenged Shawn Jones this week to improve on his free throw shooting. In his team’s toughest challenge of the young season Friday, Jones came through with clutch makes from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter as No. 9 Meade defeated Arundel, 84-78, in an Anne Arundel County contest in Gambrills.

Jones paced Meade with 20 points Friday, including 4-of-7 from the stripe. He went 0-for-5 at the line in the Mustangs’ win over Severna Park earlier in the week.

“It was just the mental part of my game,” Jones said. “I just took my time, blocked out the noise and believed in my shot.”

Jones was joined at the free throw line by Xavion Roberson and Eric Brown in the final seconds as Meade remained perfect (4-0 overall and Anne Arundel) in the young season. The Mustangs made 19-of-33 free throws Friday.

It was far from perfect, but Glick saw his team do just enough to pick up a tough league win.

“For us, it’s a really good litmus test,” Glick said. “I think it wakes us up a little bit and makes us understand that every time you’re playing people are coming after you. And we have to get better.”

Meade, which reached the Class 4A state semifinals after winning the Anne Arundel regular season crown, started fast with a 10-point first quarter lead. The Mustangs upped it to 13 after a Zamar Jones 3-pointer, but Arundel, which won the Anne Arundel championship match over Meade last season, responded.

The Wildcats, behind three straight 3-pointers from Erick Beavers, cut Meade’s lead to three at 32-29. After Shawn Jones made a basket, Arundel’s Noah Frayer hit from deep to cut the Meade lead to 34-32. Kyree Scott ended the half with a three-point play to swing some momentum back to the Mustangs.

Coming out of the half, the Wildcats tied the game at 37 with a Samson Anjorin free throw and two Frayer layups. As fast as the junior captain — who scored 37 on Friday — heated up for Arundel, Roberson sparked a run of his own.

He responded with a floater to put the Mustangs back up, 39-37. With his team down, 41-40, Roberson scored the next six points after that to regrow the Mustangs lead to 46-41.

He finished with 28 points Friday.

“It makes your job a lot easier when you have a great point guard that not only can score, but facilitate,” Glick said.

Meade grew its lead to as many as 12 in the second half before the Wildcats clawed back. Frayer scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the Mustang lead to 75-72. Shawn Jones made both from the line to restore a five-point lead.

Xavion Roberson sparked Meade boys basketball to victory Friday evening with a game-high 28 points. The No. 9 Mustangs defeated Arundel in an Anne Arundel County contest. (Trevor Colgan)
Arundel (1-3, 1-1 Anne Arundel) has lost by a total of nine points in its three losses this season.

Wildcats coach Rodney Ramsey can see his team taking the next step soon.

“We’ve played great competition, and they’re young,” Ramsey said. “It’s good for us to get these bumps now.”

Though Meade answered its biggest challenge Friday, it realizes it’s only the beginning.

“I like it man, but I’m not satisfied,” Roberson said. “I want to win the county championship and the state championship this year.”

NO. 9 MEADE 84, ARUNDEL 78

Meade – Xavion Roberson 28, Shawn Jones 20, Kyree Scott 12, John Teague 4, Zamar Jones 12, Lucaya Baldridge 4, Eric Brown 2, Sylvan Amegashie 2. Totals 30 19-33 84.

Arundel – Noah Frayer 37, Samson Anjorin 8, Kofi Duro 3, Ryan Alston 7, Aqeel Sana 7, Kaled Omotosho 2, Erick Beavers 14. Totals 27 15-27 78.

Meade- 23 14 20 27 — 84

Arundel- 13 19 17 29 — 78

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HIGH SCHOOL
Anne Arundel 2022-23 boys basketball preview: Meade, Glen Burnie, South River projected to lead the county in a return to normalcy
By Katherine Fominykh
Capital Gazette

Dec 05, 2022 at 4:29 pm

Coach Mike Glick celebrates wit the Meade boys basketball team after a playoff win last season. Meade is expected to be one of the top teams again in Anne Arundel County, and also a Class 4A state championship contender.
Coach Mike Glick celebrates wit the Meade boys basketball team after a playoff win last season. Meade is expected to be one of the top teams again in Anne Arundel County, and also a Class 4A state championship contender. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

Normalcy. It’s a word coveted by so many people across the world for nearly three full years and one many sports have reached in many phases since the coronavirus pandemic began.

But it’s not one that Anne Arundel boys basketball experienced last year.

A coronavirus surge hit in Mid-December, forcing a slew of teams to shut down. Few teams continued on through the holiday break, and the disparity of play and experience was evident between teams who did shut down and those who did not.

Things may be changing for season season, and parity may be returning.

“Teams have had a much more productive summer and preseason,” Broadneck coach John Williams said. “It’s been easy to see that the level of basketball should get back to being solid throughout the county.”

Turnout has been a big contributor to that return to normal as well. Teams report seeing good numbers across the board.

As for who should emerge as early contenders for the top, well, that will likely resemble the end of last winter’s standings. Namely, Meade.

The Mustangs graduated key figures in guards Andre Campbell and Bryson Spruell, but what it retains — starters like seniors Xavion Robinson (All-County first team), Shawn Jones, John Teague and Kyree Scott — should maintain Meade’s elevated status in the county.

Coach Mike Glick named chemistry and defense as the team’s best qualities, things that propelled Meade to the Class 4A state semifinals last winter.

“Our goal is to win the 4A state championship,” Glick said.
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Coach Mike Glick celebrates wit the Meade boys basketball team after a playoff win last season. Meade is expected to be one of the top teams again in Anne Arundel County, and also a Class 4A state championship contender.
Coach Mike Glick celebrates wit the Meade boys basketball team after a playoff win last season. Meade is expected to be one of the top teams again in Anne Arundel County, and also a Class 4A state championship contender. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

Normalcy. It’s a word coveted by so many people across the world for nearly three full years and one many sports have reached in many phases since the coronavirus pandemic began.

But it’s not one that Anne Arundel boys basketball experienced last year.

A coronavirus surge hit in Mid-December, forcing a slew of teams to shut down. Few teams continued on through the holiday break, and the disparity of play and experience was evident between teams who did shut down and those who did not.

Things may be changing for season season, and parity may be returning.

“Teams have had a much more productive summer and preseason,” Broadneck coach John Williams said. “It’s been easy to see that the level of basketball should get back to being solid throughout the county.”

Turnout has been a big contributor to that return to normal as well. Teams report seeing good numbers across the board.

As for who should emerge as early contenders for the top, well, that will likely resemble the end of last winter’s standings. Namely, Meade.

The Mustangs graduated key figures in guards Andre Campbell and Bryson Spruell, but what it retains — starters like seniors Xavion Robinson (All-County first team), Shawn Jones, John Teague and Kyree Scott — should maintain Meade’s elevated status in the county.

Coach Mike Glick named chemistry and defense as the team’s best qualities, things that propelled Meade to the Class 4A state semifinals last winter.

“Our goal is to win the 4A state championship,” Glick said.

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Meade begins year with vital ‘circle talk’; Madison thinks four-peat
High school basketball notes
By Washington Post Staff
December 12, 2022 at 1:39 p.m. EST

Meade boys’ basketball sits for their “circle talk” ahead of the 2022-2023 season. (Mike Glick)

Coach Mike Glick gathered his team four days before the Meade boys’ season opener for what he calls a “circle talk,” a ritual he has done throughout his long coaching career.

It’s simple: All fifteen players sit in a circle, ordered by their standing on the depth chart. The best player goes first — except he doesn’t do anything other than listen. It’s the rest of the team that talks, going around the room to tell the player on the spot what they like or dislike about him both on and off the court.

Then it’s the coaches’ turn. They offer their thoughts before closing by clearly telling the player his role on this year’s team. Glick and the coaching staff are intentional and specific with those roles.

They told point guard Xavion Roberson, the first player in the circle, he was going to have the ball to close out every game this season. Other players are told their role is to defend the opponent’s best player or to focus on rebounding. The process is repeated for every player and usually takes roughly three hours to finish. This year’s took so long they saved the last five players for the next day.

“It’s really powerful for the kids to hear from the other kids their perception,” Glick said. “It was just really uplifting to listen to how they talk to each other and about each other and how the kids were able to take the criticism.”

When the Mustangs practiced after wrapping up the circle talk on Dec. 6, they put together their best session of the season to date. Sophomore Lucaya Baldridge was told by teammates he had been too timid shooting the ball. He came to practice and began taking those open shots, Glick said, earning pats on the back and high fives for doing so.

The Mustangs won their season opener against North County by 45 points, but their goals extend further, focused around improving on last year’s 4A state semifinal appearance.

They’ll sit down for another circle talk before the playoffs start, but likely with a different seating arrangement — one that reflects the team’s fluid depth chart and roles the Mustangs take on as they try to meet their ultimate challenge.

— Varun Shankar

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It may have been the strangest way to end a regional final — a double technical foul called with .4 seconds left, giving both teams a free shot without it possibly making a mathematical difference.

But by then, Meade couldn’t care. The glory of the scrappiest game of their lives washed over, getting them dancing. Through sheer will and clever defensive planning against the odds, the Mustangs rallied and slayed their dragon.

In a chaotic back-and-forth game in which both teams at one point surrendered significant leads, No. 1 seed Meade cascaded over its bitterest rival, No. 2 Arundel to claim the Class 4A East Region I title, 63-59. The Mustangs advance to the state quarterfinals on Friday, facing No. 6 Northwest at 7 as the third seed.

With the win, the Mustangs served revenge on the Wildcats for beating them in the county championship — and beating them in the last region final.

“I’ve been involved with a lot of games and that was probably one of the grittiest, gutsiest performances I have seen in 29 years of high school coaching,” Mustangs coach Mike Glick said.

Meade’s second quarter comeback was Herculean enough, but even more impressive was what came later. Arundel destroyed the Mustangs’ 12-point lead in the fourth on a hot streak, took the lead and fouled out one of Meade’s stars, Andre Campbell, all in one fell swoop. Then the Mustangs just kept missing every free throw chance they got.

Rather than crumbling, the Mustangs bucked up; they kept within a point of the Wildcats until senior Xavion Roberson’s free throws and layup recaptured Meade control for good. As he did, chants of “MVP” rose to a crescendo.

“Anybody on this team can be that guy that night,” said Roberson, who had 17 points. “I’m not the MVP. The whole team is.”

In that is Meade’s entire season’s essence. They trusted one another to regroup on the floor when their offense wasn’t flowing. They trusted assistant coach Mike Francis when he suggested switching to a triangle-and-two defense to stop both Karris Scott, whom they’d expected to play well, and Elisha Williams, who surprised them with 16 points.

Shawn Jones surprised Arundel right back, not only with his 15 points, not only with his well-earned improvement at the foul line, but even with where Meade put him, outside to draw heat out of the paint.
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Glick believed Jones could improve after a lackluster county championship and challenged him to be better. Jones listened. He shot 5-for-7 from the stripe even as Arundel fans screamed.

“I wasn’t gonna let them get in my head,” he said. “I knocked them down.”

The first quarter got out of Meade’s hands. As Mustangs pushed inside to try and shoot, 6-foot-7 Arundel senior Azim Sana loomed like Godzilla from the sea, batting their attempts to the earth. Meade, usually quite comfortable in the paint, struggled to establish any sort of rhythm — unlike Arundel.

The Wildcats took advantage of multiple turnovers and rebounds collected after misfired Meade shots to drum up their offense. Arundel showed as much comfortability under the net as it did from the perimeter, as both Williams and DeAndre Johnson successfully exercised their 3-point shot. Just like in the county championship, Arundel controlled the tempo.

Trailing 15-8 into the second, Meade looked more and more out-of-system. The Wildcats hassled the ball-handlers and locked down any airspace at the post. Limited to the arc, the adept 3-point-shooting Mustangs could not even land those.

While Meade scribbled on their drawing board, it kept Arundel from running away. Shot after shot dribbled helplessly off the glass. Its cushion disappeared as Jones and Campbell scratched at it. As Meade embarked on a 14-3 run, the former dished to the latter to land the go-ahead basket, 21-20.

“[Defense] flipped the game totally,” Roberson said. “Our defense translates our offense.”

Now, it was Arundel running to timeout, but the best of Meade was still brewing. As time expired, Roberson put Meade up 31-24 at the half. As senior Bryson Spruell got hot from the perimeter and the ball kept flowing Meade’s way, that mark only improved to 50-38 at the end of the third.

One would think a dozen-point lead would be somewhat safe. But not with Arundel.

As they gathered together before the fourth, the Wildcats swapped out the team they were in the third for the team they could be.

Arundel senior Thomas Loughry’s two 3-pointers lit the torch as the Wildcats netted 14-straight, the lead changing 54-53 in the hands of senior Messiah Anderson with around two minutes to go.

Though Meade played to an unbeaten mark in the county in the regular season, it did know defeat: a loss to City, a loss to Indian Creek. Then, of course, Arundel’s win in the county championship.

“They won that championship and they thought they won it all,” Roberson said. “We already knew we was gonna come back.”