James Quinn MDVarsity.com Magazine Staff Rivals.com Rudy Gay developed into a nationally elite player at Spalding In his seven years at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland. Head Coach Mike Glick has built one of the best prep hoop programs in the Baltimore Catholic League (BCL) and the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. At Spalding, Glick has won BCL and MIAA "A" Championships; developed over a dozen Division One college players (including McDonald's All-American Rudy Gay, now a star freshman at UConn, and 7' sophomore center Will Bowers at Maryland); played at prestigious national prep tournaments; and won over 70% of his games (165-69). This year's Cavalier team did not feature a future NBA Lottery Pick, like the aforementioned Gay, or a towering center like recent 7' graduates Bowers and Jason Loughery (who got significant playing time as a freshman at Mt. St. Mary's College this year). Also, Spalding did not win an MIAA "A" or BCL championship this year. But Glick told MdVarsity.com this week that, nevertheless, the Cavaliers had a "very successful" season in 2004-2005. Spalding finished the season 21-12 and ranked No. 14 in the final Baltimore Sun Poll. "I think we had a very successful year," said Glick. "I was very happy with our season. Our league was exceptionally tough, very deep, yet we went .500 in the BCL. We were the only team in the conference to beat (No. 2 ranked) Mt. St. Joe's in the regular season and we beat (No. 7 ranked) Towson Catholic at Towson Catholic. Outside of the league, we beat National Christian Academy twice, we beat Eleanor Roosevelt, Woodlawn and Good Counsel. We also beat Don Bosco Prep of New Jersey down in Richmond, they were one of the top teams in (New) Jersey at the time." "But, most of all, I'm proud that we had six seniors this year and they all qualified academically and they are all going to college," said Coach Glick. "Three of those seniors got scholarships to good D-I colleges that are excellent academic colleges with good basketball programs." Guard Justin Castleberry (14 points, 5 assists per game) signed with Bucknell University, guard Marquis Sullivan (17 points, 4 rebounds a game) signed with Loyola College and forward Lawrence Dixon (13 points, 6 rebounds a game) signed with Holy Cross. All three players earned All-County and All-BCL Honors. Castleberry and Sullivan each played in the Charm City Challenge preliminary game for the Suburban All Stars. Dixon plated in the Challenge's main game for the Baltimore All Stars. The graduations of Dixon, Castleberry, and Sullivan will cost Spalding valuable experience, and most of their offensive fire power, next season – but Glick is optimistic that the Cavaliers will still be "pretty good" in 2005-2006. "Obviously, we lost some great players, but we get back four seniors who played a lot of minutes as juniors. I think we can be pretty good, We'll be counting on these four guys to give us leadership, good defense, and experience. If they can step up their scoring, that will help. We also expect some help from some JV kids, though I'd like to keep some of the freshman on the JV for their sophomore years next year," said Coach Glick. The senior nucleus is led by 6'2" guard Derek Young. Young, an outstanding defensive player, had a good junior season off the bench for the Cavaliers. "Derek is our best returning player, he's a D-I college player. He is an excellent defensive player, a good ball handler – Derek has really improved his jump shot just since the season ended. He is a good leader, a good player." Young played on the Spalding JV as a sophomore after transferring in from Suitland High School. 6'4" senior guard/forward Danny Palumbo also played on the Cavalier JV in 2003-2004 after he transferred in from DeMatha. Palumbo is an athletic, versatile perimeter player. His father is the Athletic Director at Towson Catholic. "Danny is a very good athlete and a really competitive kid – he helped us as a junior this year – he can play a couple of positions," said Coach Glick "I think Palumbo will be a key guy for us next year." 6'7" senior forward/center Danny Quinn is another former DeMatha player (as were both Palumbo and Castleberry). Quinn is a hardnosed post player who rebounds well and plays good defense. "How much Danny can improve his senior season is a big key for us. He had a good year for us as a junior. He basically played almost no basketball as a freshman or sophomore, so he is still getting better as he gets more experienced He is a BIG key for us next year." Senior guard Matt Cassilly is a solid player who excels on the defensive end. He got some quality minutes off the bench as a junior. Glick has two of the most promising young BCL players moving up from his JV in sophomores Kevon Moore, a 6'3" wing/forward from Bowie, Md., and 6'6" forward Brad Bald from Millersville, Md. MdVarsity.com had a chance to see the Spalding JV play a few times this year and the highly regarded Moore and Bald looked like future BCL standouts. "They are both very talented and they played very well on the JV as freshman. I think that Kevon and Brad both have a lot of talent and potential and will be very good players for us…how much they'll actually contribute as sophomores, we'll have to see – but they are REALLY good prospects. They will both get a shot at playing time, for sure, next year. We had some other good, young kids on the JV this year, but I'd like to keep most of them on the JV for another year." Coach Glick is very excited about his incoming freshman class for next year and he told us about a couple of rising freshman that he thinks can be "… great players for us down the road." Coach Glick said that one of his incoming guards might be good enough to be the first freshman to play on the Spalding varsity for him since he arrived seven years ago. "I think this kid is the best freshman guard coming into our league next year," said Coach Glick. On Archbishop Spalding's "Senior Night " this year, when they upset Mt. St. Joe's, Coach Glick gave MdVarsity.com a tour of the construction site where Spalding will be opening a big, beautiful gymnasium next academic year. With a new gymnasium and two straight great incoming "recruiting classes", the future of Cavalier basketball at Archbishop Spalding is very bright!

By Pat O'Malley Sun Staff Originally published March 2, 2005 Five Anne Arundel County boys basketball players, including three from Archbishop Spalding who have signed with Division I programs, have been chosen to play in the fifth Charm City Challenge on April 10 at Towson University. Spalding's Lawrence Dixon, a 6-foot-5 forward, is the only one to be named to the feature game as a member of the Baltimore All-Stars, who will play the United States Stars at 5 p.m. Dixon, who was named a Baltimore Catholic League first-team selection, is headed to Holy Cross. Dixon's teammates, guards Justin Castleberry and Marquis Sullivan, who have signed with Bucknell and Loyola, respectively, will play for the Suburban All-Stars against the Baltimore City Stars in a 3 p.m. preliminary game. Arundel's Corey Henderson, a 6-3 swingman, and Old Mill's 6-8 center, Travis Hyman, are the only county public school players selected for the Suburban stars.

Lawrence Dixon scores 25 points, including the game winner as the Cavaliers top No.One Ranked Mt. St. Joseph, 58-56. James Quinn Feb 12, 2005 MDVarsity.com Magazine Staff MdVarsity.com traveled to Severn, Maryland on Friday night to see the latest installment of what has become one of the best and most intense rivalries in local high school basketball: the cavaliers of Archbishop Spalding against the Gaels of Mt. St. Joe's. The two programs reside in the very competitive Baltimore Catholic League (BCL) and the MIAA "A" Conferences. Gael Coach Pat Clatchey has built an extraordinarily strong program at the Catonsville Catholic school. The Gaels were Baltimore's No. 1 team in 2003-2004 and are presently ranked No. 1 in 2004-2005– even as Mt. St. Joe's has had to cope with the loss of two of the their best players for the season with knee injuries. The Gaels came into Friday's game at Spalding with a 19 game winning streak and a record of 25-1. The Gaels have won the last two BCL Tournament Championships. Spalding has become a perennial BCL and MIAA "A" Conference power under head coach Mike Glick and in recent years have become a nationally known prep program by producing such highly recruited players as former prep all-American Rudy Gay (UConn) and 7' center Will Bowers, now starting at the University of Maryland, and by competing in prestigious national high school tournaments across the country. Both Mt. St. Joe's and Spalding have produced numerous D-I college recruits in the last few years and both teams have several D-I recruits on their current rosters. Beyond that, the two programs have gained a great deal of respect because their respective coaches, Clatchey and Glick, are generally acknowledged as being among the top high school bench coaches in the State. Spalding's mercurial rise as a Baltimore hoops power notwithstanding, the Cavaliers' greatest single stumbling block on the road to Baltimore hoops prominence has been Clatchey's Gaels. Spalding had lost seven straight games to the Gaels– most of them in heartbreaking fashion, all of them in critical BCL/MIAA "A" Conference match-ups. In many regards, the game Friday did NOT look like the night that Spalding would break the Gael's streak: the Gaels had won 19 in a row and have consistently risen to meet every challenge in big BCL games this year, even as Coach Clatchey has had to adjust to the loss of tough 6'4" senior forward Courtney Thomas and talented 6'1" junior guard Dejuan Goodwin. Thomas, a versatile defensive specialist/rebounder, was also a team leader on the floor for the Gaels. On a team with a lot of very talented guards, Goodwin may be the Mt. St. Joe's backcourt player with the most ability. Unfortunately, for the third straight year, Goodwin has had his season cut short by either illness or injury. Spalding, on the other hand, has already lost 10 games this season and was unranked in the Baltimore Sun Top Twenty this year. The Cavaliers have a wonderful nucleus of seniors in Lawrence Dixon, Marquis Sullivan, and Justin Castleberry, but, Coach Glick's team does not have great depth or much size. Still, early in the week, Coach Glick told Mdvarsity.com, "It is going to be an unbelievable atmosphere up here on Friday night. Mt. St. Joe's against Spalding is an incredible rivalry– it is like DeMatha-Gonzaga down in D.C. We are going to have a packed house, the students from the two schools really go back and forth with cheers. We have had some great games against them (the Gaels), as you know. Also, this will be our 'Senior Night' at Spalding and that makes it special. St. Joe's has a great team, Pat (Clatchey) really has them playing great, but I think we have a good chance to beat them. They are the best team in the conference, but I think we have the best shot at beating them. I think it is going to be a great game." Coach Glick was right on both counts: the atmosphere was amazing and from the opening whistle it was apparent that the Cavaliers were not going to back down from the top ranked Gaels. The Gaels jumped to an 11-7 advantage behind senior guard Greg Woody's hot early shooting, but Spalding answered with a 10-0 run to go up 17-11. Spalding led 17-13 after the first quarter as 6'5" senior forward Lawrence Dixon scored 13 of Spalding's 17 points. The two teams exchanged leads in the second quarter and Spalding went into the locker room at halftime with a 28-26 advantage behind the play of Dixon, a Holy Cross recruit, and 6'2" senior guard Justin Castleberry. Dixon had 18 of Spalding's 28 points, Castleberry, a Bucknell University recruit, had 8 points. Gael guards Chase Adams and Brian Johnson led Mt. St. Joe's in first half scoring with 6 points each. With Thomas and Goodwin injured, Coach Clatchey is generally going with a three-guard attack paired with rugged, athletic insiders Louis Birdsong and Dino Gregory. The Gaels can put three ultra quick 5'9" players on the floor at once in Brian Johnson, Greg Woody, and Chase Adams. The early key for Spalding staying in the game was keeping Birdsong, a 6'6" junior who can score inside or on the perimeter, and the 6'7' Gregory, a fast improving post player, from going off offensively. The Cavaliers held both players to only 2 points in the first half and to a combined 18 points for the game. Both Gregory and Birdsong were forces on the boards in this game (they combined for 18 rebounds), but neither got into the flow of the offense on a consistent basis. The Cavaliers also kept Mt. St. Joe's outstanding junior sharpshooter Kevin Swecker from getting a lot of three point looks. The talented Swecker only hit one 'trey' and scored only 4 points. The second half was as fierce back-and-forth affair and neither team ever led by more than 5 points in the second half. Chase Adams gave Spalding problems with his quickness as he got inside their defense for a couple of tip-ins and lay-ups and Brian Johnson got his third three pointer of the game in the fourth quarter, but Mt. St. Joe's only briefly took the lead twice in the second half. Loyola College recruit Marquis Sullivan of Spalding went scoreless in the first half and he missed his first five field goal attempts, but he scored 10 second half points– including a couple of clutch three pointers. Although Castleberry and Sullivan both had big nights, the evening ultimately belonged to the slender, athletic Dixon. Dixon scored on a nifty post move and scored a three-point play with 31 seconds to give Spalding the lead and, with just 15 seconds left, he partially blocked a potential game tying shot by the bigger Birdsong. The Gaels got the ball back with 4.2 seconds, but Brian Johnson missed two free throws and Dixon grabbed the rebound with 22.4 seconds– essentially wrapping up the game. Dixon finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds. "Lawrence (Dixon) was great, it was probably his best game ever here," said an exultant Coach Glick after the game. "Justin (Castleberry) was huge also– all the kids played great. I told you this was going to be a great game, I'm really proud of these kids. St. Joe's is SO tough, this is a great win for us because they are so good, so tough, it was a great way to close this old gym…" "It's tough when you lose a close one like this," Coach Clatchey told MdVarsity.com. "We hadn't lost in a while, we'd won 19 in a row. So, we are not used to this. The way that they (Spalding) play, the line-up that they used tonght (sometimes playing four guards), we couldn't really use our regular rotation the whole time…what are you going to do?. This is a great high school rivalry, we always seem to have great, tough games with them. We played okay, we didn't play bad. Now we just have to get ready for TC (Towson Catholic) on Sunday." SPALDING- MT. ST. JOE'S NOTES: -One of the six Spalding seniors honored in the pre game "Senior Night" festivities was guard Jason Bisciotti, the son of Baltimore Raven owner Steve Bisciotti. Jason's parents were present for the game and Coach Glick and each senior player presented the mothers of the senior players with a rose before the game. -Coach Glick announced that the game Friday against the Gaels was likely the last Spalding varsity game to be played in the current Spalding Gym. The new Spalding Gym, which will seat 1,600 fans, is presently under construction. It is adjacent to the old gym. -We had hoped to see more of Mt. St. Joe's promising 6'8" 200 pound freshman center Henry Sims on Friday night. Sims, who was very impressive playing for the Gael's varsity team in The Rock Summer League as a rising ninth grader, started the year on the Mt. St. Joe JV but was recently brought up to the varsity along with a freshman guard. Though he is only a freshman and just starting to play varsity basketball, Sims is already well known to the coaching staffs at all of the high D-I colleges in the DC/Maryland areas. Sims did come off the bench to get a rebound and a basket in the second quarter against Spalding. "Henry will probably play more on Sunday against Towson Catholic, but with the (small, guard-oriented) line-up that Spalding played tonight, it was hard to really fit him tonight because of the match-ups," said Coach Clatchey. -Spalding got a great clutch performance off the bench from 6'2" junior guard Derek Young. Young had two key second half baskets and, more importantly, grabbed 7 rebounds for the smaller Cavaliers. -Before the varsity game, the Spalding JV beat the Gael JV in an exciting 51-49 overtime contest. A we have noted in a prior MdVarsity.com Profile in December on Spalding's talented freshman class, Coach Glick figures to get some much needed size and frontcourt fire power on his varsity in 2005-2006 from this group of players.

Gaels' 19-game win streak terminated by Cavaliers By Pat O'Malley Sun Staff Originally published February 12, 2005 Lawrence Dixon made sure the overflow crowd last night at Archbishop Spalding will long remember the final game at the school's old gym - a thrilling 58-56 upset of top-ranked Mount St. Joseph on senior night that ended the Gaels' 19-game winning streak. Dixon's three-point play with 31 seconds remaining gave the Cavaliers their final margin of victory and gave him a game-high 25 points. At the other end, Dixon blocked a shot by Louis Birdsong with 15 seconds left that would have tied the game. "I knew Brian [Johnson, Mount St. Joseph point guard] was going to the basket to dish off to Louis," said Dixon, who is headed for Holy Cross. "They've been doing it all season, so I just helped out on Birdsong and tried to get a deflection.We've been working on finishing games [the Cavs have lost eight of 10 in the final seconds] and credit to coach Mike Glick for putting us in a position to win." After Johnson missed a pair of free throws with four seconds left, Dixon grabbed the rebound, his 10th of the game, and the Cavs held on for the win in the Baltimore Catholic League and Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference game. The unranked Cavs (20-10 overall) had lost seven in a row to the Gaels (25-2) over the last three seasons, with nearly every game going down to the last possession. "That was Dixon's best game since he's been in our program," said Glick, whose team will move into a new gym next year that will hold twice as many fans (1,600) as the old one. "This win should help us going into the A Conference and Catholic League playoffs." "There aren't college rivalries like the one we have with them," said Mount St. Joe's coach Pat Clatchey, whose team is in first place in both leagues and can clinch its third straight BCL regular-season title with a win in one of its last two games - at home Sunday against No. 6 Towson Catholic or at No. 12 Calvert Hall on Tuesday.

DIXON'S 25-POINTS LEDS SPALDING 2/12/2005 True to form, Archbishop Spalding and top-ranked Mount St. Joseph played another in their seemingly endless series of heart-stopping, down to the wire basketball thrillers, last night at Spalding. The Cavaliers, however, revised the familiar closing script and snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Gaels, which dates back three years, as senior Lawrence Dixon scored 25-points and made a huge play on each end of the court, in the final minute, to secure a 58-56 MIAA A Conference win. Trailing by one with 31-seconds remaining, Spalding went in front when Dixon converted a traditional three-point play. He then blocked a shot by St. Joe's Louis Birdsong, with 15-seconds left, as the Gaels attempted to tie. St. Joe then squandered a final a chance to tie when senior Brian Johnson missed a pair of free throws, with four-seconds left, before Dixon snared the rebound and ran out the clock. After escaping an upset bid from Calvert Hall with a two-point win, earlier this week, St. Joe (25-2, 13-1) lost for the first time this season in the league. The Gaels, however, have already locked up the top seed for the league playoffs, which get underway next week. Spalding, the defending A Conference champion, will enter the playoffs as the sixth-seed, demonstrating the overall strength of the league. The Cavaliers (20-10, 7-8) seem to have recovered from a difficult mid-season stretch which saw them lose seven of nine and nearly fall out of playoff contention. Last night's win, however, was Spalding's third straight and the fifth in its last six games. This is certainly not a team any of the higher seeds want to draw in the opening round of the playoffs. In addition to Dixon, Spalding got 17-points from Justin Castleberry and 10 from Marquis Sullivan. St. Joe was paced by 12-points from Greg Woody