Seasons
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Boyd, Gregory and Richards lead Yellow Jackets past Flowers in county championship game
Just before riding to Henry A. Wise High School for the Prince George's County championship game Wednesday, the Gwynn Park boys basketball team watched the fourth quarter of 2010 county title game.
Crowded into coach Michael Glick's classroom, the players saw the previous edition of the team blow a 13-point lead in a little more than the final two minutes. They saw Oxon Hill make a shot at the buzzer to win. They saw the tears flow on the sideline afterward.
Still motivated a few hours later by the video that Glick never showed even that 2010 team, the Yellow Jackets beat Charles H. Flowers for the 2012 Prince George's County championship, 57-51. Gwynn Park led by eight early in the fourth quarter, but unlike 2010, it surged to victory after a 46-46 tie midway through the period.
“I wanted to win this so bad,” said Marcel Boyd, the only current Yellow Jacket to play in that 2010 game. “At the end of the game, when they started coming back a little bit, I thought in my head about the sophomore loss at the last second and thought, ‘No, I can't. I can't let my team go down like this.' So I stepped up. I motivated my teammates. I said, ‘C'mon, we're not going to lose this game.'”
Boyd's contributions were more than just intangible. The 6-foot-9 Howard University recruit had 13 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
“Marcel Boyd was the difference in the game,” said Glick, whose team split the County 3A/2A/1A League title with Largo and won a coin flip to reach Wednesday's contest. “I thought he was a commanding presence inside.”
After Glick said that, he was reminded of Agyei Gregory, who had 22 points and eight rebounds.
“I guess I should give Agyei Gregory some credit,” Glick said laughing. “Agyei Gregory, I couldn't be prouder of him. He shot the ball so well, and he's really coming into his own.”
The senior guard didn't play as much earlier in the season as he learned to deal with physicality, but now a starter, he made six 3-pointers.
“Agyei is awesome,” Boyd said when asked about Gregory's outside shooting. “It freed me inside, so I could do my inside work.”
If Gregory enabled Boyd's offense, Xavier Richards did the same defensively. The senior guard helped protect the rim with three blocks and funneled his own man toward the long arms of Boyd.
“Xavier's a beast,” Boyd said. “He's a man-child. This kid is super athletic.”
Richards scored Gwynn Park's last two baskets and three of its final four, including a turnaround layup while falling.
“Anything he does [never] ceases to amaze me,” Glick said. “He's an unbelievable athlete. He makes shots that I just can't imagine how the go in.”
Richards' late defense might have been even more incredible.
On Flowers' final possession, Richards blocked a 3-pointer, and when he thought the ball went out of bounds, he celebrated momentarily before collapsing inside and getting a steal.
“I just go for the ball all the time,” said Richards, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. “That's all I see right there when it comes down to the last seconds of the game.”
For all Richards' late heroics and Gregory's game-long shot-making, Glick kept going back to Boyd. At the end of the first quarter, Boyd had the ball well beyond the 3-point arc as part of a designed play. But instead of kicking to a guard, as the play prescribed, Boyd turned around and made his first 3-pointer of the season — which Glick deemed the game's best play.
“I guess he figured he was the 3-point shooter,” Glick said.
And why not? After the heartbreaking loss two years ago, Boyd redefined his legacy in the county championship contest Wednesday. Couldn't he redefine his game, too?
After the victory, the Gwynn Park players passed around their new trophy like they passed around compliments.
But, perhaps, the highest praise came from their opponent.
“We played a good basketball team — and definitely not a 2A/3A team,” said Flowers coach Billy Lanier, whose team won the County 4A League to reach the game. “It looked like a 4A team.
dfeldman@gazette.net
Gwynn Park 57, Flowers 51
Gwynn Park 14 15 15 13 — 57
Flowers 14 9 15 13 — 51
Gwynn Park (18-5): Agyei Gregory 22, Marcel Boyd 13, Xavier Richards 12, Jalen Harris 4, Jarvis Hawkins 2, Robert Flint 2, Achkel Bazil 2.
Flowers (16-5): Dontae Holloway 12, Brandon Green 11, David Barnes 10, Reggie Sidbury 8, Clint Robinson 4, Darret Gorham 2, Kofi Andoh 2, Malik Harris 2.
