By BOB HOUGH For The Capital When the rosters for the 15th annual Capital-Gazette Newspapers Senior All-Star Classic were announced a few weeks ago, Chesapeake and North coach Doug Sisson immediately proclaimed his squad the underdogs. Archbishop Spalding senior Dave Douglas and the rest of the North team proved you don't play the game on paper. Douglas, a role player and defensive specialist for Spalding, showed he can also be a force on the offensive end in leading the North to a 95-86 win against the South in front of 1,200 fans at Broadneck High School last night. Douglas scored eight of his game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter to earn North MVP honors as his team took control over the last six minutes of the game to give the North an 8-7 lead in the series. "We were the underdogs and that's what we pushed at practice last night (Monday) before the game," Sisson said. "I had other coaches looking at the rosters and calling me and teasing me. It's a role the kids really liked." If the North was the supposed underdog, it didn't play like it right from the beginning. The North jumped to an early 10-4 lead and Old Mill's Anthony Dailey (13 points, five rebounds) hit a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter for a 46-37 edge. The South cut into the lead and trailed by four points at halftime, 50-46. "We came out flashy and firing up 3s, when we should have been going inside to Adrian (Gross) and Josh Johnson," said South coach Calvin Vain of Annapolis Area Christian School. The South came out in the second half and looked like it was getting ready to take over. South MVP Josh Johnson of Annapolis gave his team its first lead two minutes into the third quarter at 52-50. Matt Hall followed with a bucket to cap an 11-0 run that spanned the second and third quarters and the South was up by four. After the teams traded the lead, the South ended the third quarter with a 68-66 edge, and everyone seemed to be waiting for it to pull away. Southern's Justin Holland (11 points, four rebounds) opened the fourth period with a pair of free throws to push the South lead to four, but the North just would not go away. North County's Dave Bafford hit a pair of 3-pointers over a three-minute span to keep the North within striking distance. The South took its last lead at 76-74 on a layup by Adrian Gross (12 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks) with just over seven minutes left. Glen Burnie's Tony Sherrod (17 points, six rebounds, three steals) tied the game, then Old Mill's Delray Eldridge (eight points, five rebounds) and Douglas had consecutive dunks to push the lead to four. Douglas would get two more steals in the quarter to help fend off any thought of a South comeback. Douglas sealed his MVP award with a pair of layups just before the two-minute mark and began putting a dribbling exhibition as the North was preserving the lead. He finished with nine rebounds and six steals in winning the North MVP. "I just tried to come out and have a lot of fun. I was playing against a lot of people I haven't played against all year," Douglas said. Meade's Ray Williams helped the North build the lead in the first half and finished with 12 points, five rebounds and four steals. Spalding's Gus Durr Jr. added 10 points and four steals for the winning North squad. Johnson scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds. He scored eight of his points in the second half as the South tried to gain control. "It took me by surprise. I was going after the boards, which was my thing during the season, so I figured I should do it out here," Johnson said. St. Mary's Jeff Postell and Southern's Adrian Gross also had 12 points apiece. Postell grabbed 11 boards while Gross had 10. Gross' Southern teammates Justin Holland and Matt Hall each added 11 points, and St. Mary's Marcus Perry pitched in with 10 for the South. For Vain, the South team coach, last night's game was a fun way to end the season. "At this point in my life, I wasn't sure if this was going to be my last game. If I don't coach another game, this will be a nice way to end it," he said. For Chesapeake coach Doug Sisson, last night's win sure beats the way most coaches end the season. "I've never ended the season with a win; this was something different," he said. Before the game, Camille Weefur, a second-grader at North Glen Elementary School in Glen Burnie, got the festivities started with a stirring rendition of the national anthem. South 25 21 22 18 _86 North 31 19 16 29 _95South (86) Johnson 5 2-6 12, Gibson 1 0-0 2, Postell 6 0-2 12, Boyd 3(1) 0-0 7, Perry 4(2) 0-0 10, Crowther-Washburn 1 0-0 2, Snowden 0 0-2 0, Gross 5 2-2 12, Hall 4(1) 2-4 11, Holland 3 5-5 11, Jackson 2 0-0 4, Hutchins 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 36(4) 10-21 86. North (95) Williams 6 0-2 12, Eldridge 3(1) 1-2 8, Durr 4(2) 0-0 10, Dailey 5(2) 1-3 13, Sherrod 7 3-4 17, Mason 0 2-2 2, Bafford 3(3) 1-2 10, Douglas 8 1-4 17, Lutz 0 0-0 0, Tewell 0 0-2 0, Jones 2 0-0 4, Johnson 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 39(8) 9-21 95. Published March 19, 2003, The Capital, Annapolis, Md. Copyright © 2003 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.