Potomac High School boys basketball coach Renard Johnson said he has pretty much seen senior guard Randall Broddie do it all in his three years coaching the Memphis recruit. Last season it was Broddie who took on a substantial amount of the scoring on a team filled with Division I college players during the Wolverines’ run to a 2A state championship. This year, drawing a great deal of defensive attention, Broddie has still impressed by scoring at will while still getting his teammates involved.

But Thursday night during an intense 3A/2A/1A League matchup at Gwynn Park, Johnson said he saw something from Broddie he hadn’t seen in a few months. He saw Randall Broddie coaching on the floor, a sight that brought a toothy grin to the fourth-year coach’s face. Broddie led all scorers with 24 points, carrying a severely depleted Potomac squad to a much-needed 55-52 win at a tough-nosed Gwynn Park team.

“I’ve seen him do it in years past,” Johnson said of his guard’s in-game directing. “But now he realizes, ‘Hey, [I’ve] got to coach these guys.’”

Broddie’s extra dose of on-court leadership Thursday night was no coincidence. Potomac, considered by many to be one of the top teams in the county coming into the season, had suffered two losses — 79-69 to Central on Friday and 83-53 to West Charlotte on Saturday — in the last week. The Wolverines were also ravaged by injury and absences. Shooting guard David Rose is still unavailable due to football commitments, guard Kaine Wilson is recovering from an ankle injury, and 6-foot-7 junior Karon Green is no longer with the team, according to Johnson.

To top it all off, co-captain Anthony Smith, a 6-foot-6 senior center drawing interest from some Division I programs, announced Thursday afternoon he would miss the remainder of the 2014-2015 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, an injury he suffered Dec. 9 in a win over Friendly.

So when the dust settled, Johnson trotted out one true starter onto the court Thursday night. Luckily for Potomac, that one starter was the best player on the court.

“With a piece down, you have to pick up a bigger role and lead the guys,” Broddie said of his enhanced responsibilities. “I definitely tried to do that today.”

On a night where the Wolverines only managed to shoot 15-of-65 (23 percent) from the field, Broddie kept his team competitive until some teammates began to come on late.

With just over four minutes remaining and the Wolverines trailing 45-42, Wilson, who had been 0-for-7 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first three quarters, drilled a deep 3-pointer to tie things up. On the following possession, Gwynn Park junior Aaron Parker, who had led a second-half offensive resurgence for the Yellow Jackets, fouled out on a questionable charge call. Wilson drilled another 3-pointer to put the Wolverines up 48-45 with 3 minutes, 36 seconds remaining — a lead they would not relinquish. The league foes traded free throws and turnovers for the remaining three minutes before Potomac came out on top with a much-needed win.

“On a Thursday night, here at their gym, Christmas break is about to start, this was a heck of a win for us,” Johnson said. “It was a very tough win.”

Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick, in his ninth season at the Brandywine school, knew what his team was getting into with Broddie, a player he called, “as good as any player I’ve coached against in nine years in this league.” The Yellow Jackets came out in a box-and-one defense, doubling the Memphis recruit every time he touched the ball. And for a period, the pressure worked - Broddie got off to a slow start, committing uncharacteristic turnovers, forcing a few bad shots and shooting only 2-of-10 in the first half.

But when it got to crunch time, Gwynn Park’s inexperience proved to be their downfall, as a number of costly turnovers and defensive lapses cost the it a shot at victory.

“I’m proud of how we played, our intensity that we played with and how we played with togetherness,” Glick said. “We’re getting better as the season goes on.”

agutekunst@gazette.net

Potomac 12 8 15 20 — 55

Gwynn Park 11 10 15 16 — 52

SCORING

Potomac — Randall Broddie 24; Kaine Wilson 8; Iiron Buchanan 6; Gary Robertson 6; Anthony Davis 5; Andre Dixon 4; Emil Neugent.

Gwynn Park — Isaiah Miles 15; Evan Crump 11; Aaron Parker 10; Marion White 7; Parris Miles 4; CJ Miller 3; Artie Wills 2.