Friendly High School boys' basketball coach Robert Garner accurately predicted Friday's early-season showdown against Gwynn Park when prior to the game he called it a "rumble."

In an early candidate for game of the year in the County 3A/2A/1A League, Gwynn Park earned a huge win on the road in Fort Washington, edging the Patriots, 68-67.

The victory was hard fought for a Class 2A Gwynn Park team team that is 3-1 and already battle tested, having faced two of the area's better Class 3A teams – Friendly and Potomac (an 81-80 setback Dec. 11) – on consecutive Fridays.

"This was a very big win for us," said Yellow Jackets' sophomore guard Eric Batts. "We wanted to come back from that Potomac game and beat Central [Tuesday night] and Friendly. Coach told us we're never out of it."

The game went back and forth most of the way, but the Patriots (2-1) appeared in control and ready to put the game away at the start of the fourth period.

After the Patriots took a 59-48 lead with 6 minutes, 50 seconds remaining, Gwynn Park took a time out, during which coach Mike Glick implored his team that "the game isn't over." And the Yellow Jackets responded – particularly Tion Barnes, who turned up his rebounding and defense and scored all of his eight points in the fourth quarter. Gwynn Park used a 20-8 run to come back and win the game.

"I thought the way the schedule broke was crazy because we had two of the hardest games on the road in a week," Glick said. "That Potomac game really prepared us for this environment. I'm glad we're not in [Class 3A]."

Junior guard Brandon Ford led the Yellow Jackets with a game-high 24 points. Senior forward Mike Hemsley added 20 points. The Patriots were led by a balanced effort from junior forward Davon Moore (17 points), Bernard Savoy (10), Michael Johnson (eight) and Justin Strong (eight).

Patriots' coach Robert Garner said the game could help his team.

"We talked about this all week being a rumble," Garner said. "You have to be able to give a punch and take a punch, and it comes down to the last man standing. We've got to make better decisions out there. This game will help us for many different reasons."

Gwynn Park 68, Friendly 67

Gwynn Park 16 19 13 20 – 68

Friendly 22 20 13 12 – 67

GP (3-1, 2-1) -- Ford 9 4-5 24, Hemsley 9 2-7 20, T. Barnes 4 0-1 8, Batts 4 0-2 8, Henry 3 0-0 6, Blue 1 0-0 2.

F (2-1, 1-0) -- Morton 8 1-2 17, Savoy 5 0-0 12, Johnson 4 0-2 8, Sims 3 0-0 7, Adewole 1 4-4 6, Brooks 3 0-0 6, Strong 3 0-0 6, Baltimore 2 0-1 5.