City College has now won back-to-back state titles at the expense of Prince George's County schools. The Knights defeated Frederick Douglass in last year's title game.

"That was the best team we played all year and they are probably the best team in the entire state," said Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick. "They had a wide zone and we just didn't shoot well from the outside. That's been a problem for us all season long."

Outside shooting continued to plague the Yellow Jackets (20-6) in Saturday's game. Gwynn Park shot 1 of 13 from 3-point range and shot just 28.9 percent for the game.

City College coach Mike Daniel said his team aimed to make Gwynn Park struggle to find its shot.

"We wanted to put our size out there," Daniel said. "We wanted to challenge all of their shots and rebound the ball. I thought we did a good job of both of those things."

Despite the shooting difficulties, Gwynn Park was in a position to win the game until late in the fourth quarter. The Yellow Jackets led 11-7 in the first quarter after Tion Barnes dunked an alley-oop pass from Brandon Ford. But the Knights answered the dunk with an 8-0 run to take a 15-13 lead in the second quarter.

The game remained close into the fourth quarter as City College slowly pushed the lead to 44-35. The Yellow Jackets answered with a 7-1 run to get within three points at 45-42, but they would get no closer.

Any momentum the Yellow Jackets had was lost on their next possession as Glick was called for a technical foul. The ball was heading out of bounds as a City College player was attempting to save it, but Glick caught the ball as it came toward him on the sideline and handed it to a referee. The referees decided that Glick was interfering in the play and called a technical foul.

"In my 17 years of coaching I have never seen that called," Glick said. "But I don't think that play made a difference in the outcome of the game. They missed one of the free throws and we forced a turnover on the next possession."

But the outside shooting didn't get any better for the Yellow Jackets, which kept them from making a run in the fourth quarter.

Senior Mike Hemsley led Gwynn Park with 22 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, while Ford chipped in 14 points.

"I couldn't be prouder of the guys," Glick said. "We didn't get a couple of calls down the stretch and this is painful, but we got everything out of this team."