Announcement

Meade boys basketball rains down buckets, extends unbeaten streak in county to 16 with 77-57 win over South River

Posted by Michael Glick on Mar 03 2022 at 09:01AM PST
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It’s worth checking the local hardware store, they might be out of buckets after Meade boys basketball used them all Monday night.

One game now separates the Mustangs and a perfect county record after Meade drilled 13 3-pointers to dispatch South River, 77-57, in Edgewater.

Good shooting comes from good passes, Mustangs coach Mike Glick said, and Meade had that in abundance Monday. The Seahawks (11-9) had success from beyond the arc too — hitting eight 3-pointers — but Meade’s checklist at the end of the night extended much further. Senior Bryson Spruell and juniors Xavion Roberson and Shawn Jones all scored 16 points.

“We’re shooting the ball a lot better. We had 13 3-pointers a couple games ago,” Glick said. “I’m really impressed.”

Barring a loss on Wednesday, this will be Meade’s best county record since 2015, when the Mustangs (16-2 overall, 16-0 county) also went 16-0. Meade plays Glen Burnie Wednesday before Saturday’s county championship against either Broadneck or Arundel.

There isn’t much more Glick wants to see from his team — just more and more of it.

“We got punched in the mouth against [City],” Glick said. “It brought us back to reality. And since then, we’ve responded with a lot of intensity. Our biggest thing is not to worry so much about the other team but to worry about ourselves.”

That isn’t just coach-speak, either — the Mustangs embody the sentiment.

“We’re just disciplined in practice,” Roberson said. “We just keep working hard. Keep staying together, not get big-headed. We know [the county championship] will be a tough game.”

There was never a moment Meade didn’t have control. It took Andre Campbell literally all of two seconds to flick his wrist and score.

It’s difficult to comprehend that Meade sheltered one of its best players in the wings for a good chunk of the season — understandably so, as Campbell nursed injuries, first an ankle, then a finger. But Campbell let everyone know now: after his brisk opening layup, Campbell joined Roberson and Spruell in firing a combined six 3-pointers and push Meade ahead in the first.

“I think now he feels 100% and I think Xavion and Andre are two very hard kids to guard in the back-court, so they play off each other very well,” Glick said.

Meade’s Bryson Spruell, shooting over South River’s Treshaun Timmons on Monday, had 16 points in the 77-57 win over the Seahawks in Edgewater.

The Seahawks might’ve been completely lost if not for Blake Burrows. Burrows blazed like a one-man team, popping in a pair of perimeter shots and punching through a cloud of Mustangs to score again. His work seemed to inspire his teammates Cash Herndon and Jeremy Berger and together with Meade, the two teams swapped seven back-to-back 3-pointers out of 11 in the quarter.

That aspect didn’t please Glick very much, who felt his defense could’ve stepped up and not allowed South River to run its game plan so easily. The Mustangs reverted to a triangle-and-two defense, mostly revolving around two Seahawks at any given time.

Roberson knocked down a shot as time expired for a 24-17 lead.

It became a question of who wasn’t going to hit one from downtown. Meade junior forward Kyree Scott joined the club in the second, even as the perimeter became an arid landscape.

But as triples became more scarce, Meade still got to work. Now double digits separated the two as Meade’s shooters made the post their home and solidified a 42-28 edge at the half.

That happened just as the end of the first did, but this time, Scott took the role, taking a chance from outside.

“We know anyone on the team can score,” Roberson said.

Even as Meade buried South River deeper in the earth, that success didn’t rid them of frustration. As fouls mounted, the Mustangs played more and more annoyed. Still, they kept to their marks; most of the Seahawks’ scoring came when Burrows or Herndon slipped loose of their guard or drew the attention to free up the other.

Never did Meade implode: Roberson said their coaches condition them to steel themselves against calls they don’t like in practice so that come game-time, they don’t get too upset about them.

And it all comes down to what makes Meade good — outside of pure athleticism, of course.

“We stay together as a team,” Spruell said. “We don’t let that get us down.”

Up 60-41 after three, the Mustangs cruised. New faces, such as freshman Jaisean Kenner, got in on the 3-point action.

“It’s a good win for us against a really good team,” Glick said. “The goal is just to keep getting better.”

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