Thursday evening, in front of a capacity crowd at Gwynn Park High in Brandywine, the Yellow Jackets shook off several droughts and disposed of rival and reigning region champion Frederick Douglass, 64-60, in a 2A South Region semifinal.

Hemsley and his Gwynn Park teammates will face Oakland Mills on Saturday in the 2A South Region final at Henry A. Wise High School in Upper Marlboro. The winner will advance to the 2A state semifinals at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center next week.

"Me and the other four seniors all got together with the other players without the coaches," Hemsley said of their impromptu meeting after the loss to Oxon Hill. "We just wanted to make sure that we would stay together. That [county championship] game hurt. But it wasn't the end of the season. We had to get back and start working on our goal of winning the region. Douglass knocked us out the last two years, so it meant a lot that we beat them my senior year. Now we're going to play for the region championship."

Through three quarters of play the game was so evenly matched that both teams were in position to make a pivotal run. Douglass, which trailed 19-10 at the end of the first period thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Gwynn Park's Brian Blue, used runs of 6-0 and 9-0 in the second period to claim a 29-26 halftime advantage. The Eagles held a two-point lead, 41-39, heading into the final period.

But in the fourth quarter the Yellow Jackets were the more resilient team, and the senior-laden squad also got to the foul line early and often. Gwynn Park was in the double bonus for the final six minutes and made 14 of 22 free throws over that span, while the Eagles finally reached the bonus with 42 seconds remaining. Douglass managed only 1 of 3 free throws down the stretch.

"I really think our free-throw shooting was the difference," said Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick. "We missed a lot of free throws the other night against Oxon Hill, but tonight we converted on them. I think we still have to work on them in practice. We're looking forward to playing Hammond. It's the one seed against the two seed, so that should be exciting. But we knew all season it would be either us or Douglass that represented the county in the region final."

Douglass coach Tyrone Massenburg likewise sensed throughout the season the path to a return trip to the Comcast Center would go through Gwynn Park. Thursday evening his team nearly battled through the mounting foul trouble to overtake its rival. Junior Timmone Whatley scored 25 points, including his team's last 11, and he capped the scoring with a dunk as time expired.

"Timmone's a warrior," Massenburg said. "We just had too many turnovers in the fourth quarter. But I'm proud of these kids. All year long we knew we would have a target on our back. We were not going to surprise anybody after last year. It takes a special team to win a state title. So many things can happen along the way."

Gwynn Park junior guard Brandon Ford opened the fourth quarter with three-point play to give the Yellow Jackets a 42-41 lead. That triggered a series of lead changes, with Eric Washington and Whatley responding for the Eagles each time the Yellow Jackets forged ahead.

Douglass enjoyed two scoring runs in the second quarter, but with the game tied at 49-49 with four minutes to play before halftime it was Gwynn Park's turn to gain some momentum. Deante Brown scored and then Ford added a bucket and a free throw and Curtis Hardy made one free throw to give Gwynn Park a 58-49 lead with 1:32 remaining.

Consecutive baskets from Whatley gave the Eagles a glimmer of hope in the fourth quarter, and his three-point play narrowed the deficit to 59-54 with 50 seconds remaining in the game. But the Yellow Jackets got three free throws from Brown and two more from Ford, and that was enough to offset the last three baskets from Whatley.