Seasons
Announcement
Weekend walk-through: Gwynn Park Boys' basketball
Weekend walk-through: Boys' basketball
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Thursday, January 13, 2011; 4:35 PM
With several top players returning from last season's team that reached the Maryland 2A championship game, Gwynn Park began the season with high expectations. Midway through the season, however, the Yellow Jackets are .500 and struggling to find their identity after losing a key player to injury.
Coach Mike Glick said that when junior shooting guard Eric Batts tore knee ligaments in a holiday tournament game against 13th-ranked Wise, things changed drastically for his team. Two other starters were injured in that game - forward Tion Barnes and guard Daniel Henry - and have since returned, but Batts, who averaged 7.3 points, is out for the season.
"We were down to Wise by two when Batts went down, it changed the whole season," Glick said. "He was out heart and soul, our best defensive guard and hardest worker on our team."
With Batts out, Gwynn Park (5-5, 4-2 Prince George's 3A/2A/1A) has had great difficulty scoring against zone defenses, which nearly every opponent has played. It did not help that the Yellow Jackets had a challenging schedule that also included nonleague games against Virginia AAA defending champion I.C. Norcom, Wise and Riverdale Baptist.
Guard Brandon Ford, a Loyola recruit, has been the only Yellow Jacket to play in every game. He is averaging 17.7 points, while Barnes averages 11.9 points. Those two players will need to carry the load again Friday, when Gwynn Park hosts Fairmont Heights (5-5, 3-3), which features senior forward Lamont Adair (19.6 points per game).
"We're struggling shooting the basketball from outside and everybody has played us zone," Glick said. "We don't have a consistent outside shooter and everybody is shading Brandon. The season is by no means over for us. We just have to get better."
