Jim Quinn on Spalding vs. TC MDVarsity.com Magazine Staff MDVarsity.com traveled to Severn, Md., on Sunday to see an exciting Baltimore Catholic League (BCL) battle between Spalding and Towson Catholic. Spalding Coach Mike Glick told us before the game, "We don't have our best player, TC doesn't have their best player - but it should be a really interesting game." Since the home team Cavliers weren't guaranteed a victory until the final 3 seconds of the contest, it was probably a little more of an "interesting game" than Glick had hoped for! Spalding had to hold off a late TC charge to get a 54-53 victory. Spalding's 6'9" super star forward Rudy Gay had sprained his ankle the day before in the Cavalier's key 49-39 MIAA "A" Conference win over a McDonogh School team that has been red hot lately. McDonogh recently upset BCL power Cardinal Gibbons by 20 points. Gay had scored only 9 points in the McDonogh game before going out with an injured ankle. Meanwhile, Mike Daniels' TC Owls were without the services of 6'4" senior Jamal Smith. Smith, a multi-positional player who has committed to attend Wagner University next year, is a long time MDVarsity.com "favorite". Smith is a tough, versatile player. Smith has missed three games with an injured ankle. MDVarsity.Com spoke to Rudy Gay before the game. The Connecticut-bound forward was on crutches and his right ankle was heavily wrapped "It is just a sprain," said Gay. "I'll be back before the (MIAA and BCL) tournaments for sure. I hope I'll be back for the game in Philedelphia (against Cardinal Dougherty at Villanova) next weekend." Without Gay available, Coach Glick looked to junior guards Marquis Sullivan and Justin Castleberry for offense. The two guards combined for 3 three pointers and 13 points in a low-scoring first half and each hit key free throws in the second half. Castleberry finished with 15 points, Sullivan with 13 points. Even without Jamal Smith, Towson Catholic is a much more dangerous team than their BCL conference record suggests. TC is 5-7 in the ultra competitive BCL this year, but is 16-9 overall. TC has three quick, talented guards in Darrell Hopkins (16 points against Spalding), Carroll Mitchell (12 points) and Derrick Wise (7 points, 4 steals) who can shoot the three ball and who are tenacious defenders. The Owls also got a very good performance from their highly promising 6'7" freshman center/forward Dante Greene. Greene is as good a freshman frontcourt player as we have seen in the area this year! An agile, athletic 190 pounder who has already developed some nice post moves, Greene really showed the crowd something when he went coast-to-coast for a lay-up after a defensive rebound in the fourth quarter against the Cavliers. Greene finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 assist, and 3 steals. Grene also exhibited some toughness when the action got a little heated in the second half. Greene had 9 points in the first half, but Spalding did a very good job of denying him good looks in the second half. Spalding held a 15-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter and it looked like they might take a 4 point advantage into the locker room at halftime, but the diminutive Carroll Mitchell, a quick-on-quick 5'8" point guard, shook free at the buzzer to hit a 22-footer to cut the margin to 28-27. Glick found two unlikely heroes in the second half: 6'2" senior guard Kevin Galinat and 6'4" sophomore forward Johann Jones. In a two minute stretch at the end of the third quarter, Galinat hit 2 deep three pointers, drew a charge on a two-on-one fast break, and collected a steal as Spalding went on a 6-0 run to take a 46-41 lead. Galinat finished with 10 points for Spalding. Jones, who became a starting forward for Spalding in the last two weeks, only scored 6 points, but he had 12 rebounds and made the game's deciding play with 50 seconds remaining when he blocked a TC outside shot, caught the rebound, was fouled and converted the two free throws to push the Spalding lead to 54-49. TC hit two driving lay-ups in the last 37 seconds, but they were out of timeouts after the last basket with 3 seconds and Spalding did not need to inbound the ball into play before time expired. A relieved Coach Glick told MDVarsity.com, "That was a great win for us. I knew this was going to be a tough game. Towson is good and they play very hard. I was a little concerned how our kids would react in a close game without Rudy to be our 'go-to' guy. Justin and Marquis and Kevin really 'stepped-up' and I think Johann had the play of the game with that blocked shot. Johann had a great game for us. This was one of those games where you are just hoping you can hang in until the end and get the win." NOTES FROM SPALDING -TC: o MdVarsity.com will do a follow-up story on TC's Dante Green and his talented freshman teammate Ronald Nicholson, a 6'5 " forward. We were very impressed by both of these young players. o One of the colleges on hand to scout Spalding-TC was Lehigh University. Lehigh was reportedly on hand to scout the talented 6'2" junior guard Justin Castleberry. Coach Glick told us in an interview last week that Castleberry, an excellent student as well as a fine "combo" guard, is getting early interest from schools in leagues like the Ivy League and the Patriot Conference. o Cyaka Ndoba, TC's 6'10" 250 pound senior back-up center from Rwanda, got significant playing time in the second and fourth quarters on Sunday. Ndoba, who had little formal basketball background before arriving in Baltimore from Africa before his junior year, has greatly improved his conditioning and skill level in the last year. Cyaka had 2 blocks and 3 rebounds against Spalding and clearly was running the floor and playing within the Owls' system better than as a junior. Coach Daniels told us that Ndoba's recruitment is still a little slow taking shape, but that he is not concerned as to whether Cyaka will get any D-I college offers. "Cyaka will get some (scholarship) offers, I'm not worried about that. He's 6'10" 250 pounds and he is getting better all the time. He was really raw when he got here, but he's getting better." Ndoba's development was slowed a bit this spring and summer as he missed potentially valuable AAU experience and exposure with a couple of physical ailments, including ear surgery and a foot injury. He also had returned to Rwanda for much of the summer.