Fresh off a 57-54 upset victory against Frederick Douglass last Friday night, Central led Gwynn Park by one after the first quarter and was controlling the game. Though their records said otherwise, the Falcons looked like the better team.

But after those first eight minutes, they fell back to Earth.

"We're still young, and we're still trying to learn how to play the game of basketball," Central coach Lawrence Pugh said. "So at times in the games where we face a little bit of adversity, we have to handle that adversity."

Turnover after turnover as well as foul trouble derailed the Falcons' upset bid as the Yellow Jackets coasted to a 73-57 victory. Gwynn Park, the Class 2A state runner-up last year, improved to 9-5 overall and 8-2 in the County 3A/2A/1A League. Central is 4-8, 3-7.

The shots Gwynn Park missed early in the game finally started falling, and the Yellow Jackets' high-pressure defense put the Central motion offense out of sync. A 14-4 Gwynn Park run to open the second period put the game out of reach.

"I was proud of the way we played in terms of our intensity," Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick said. "I thought the first half, we were a little unintelligent with our fouling. Then we made some adjustments the second half and played a little bit of a cleaner game."

Nearly every time the Falcons attempted to mount a comeback, their defense would send Gwynn Park to the line. On a night when the referees' whistle was nearly as common as the sound of dribbling, Pugh paced up and down the sidelines and complained enough about the officiating to earn a technical foul.

Yellow Jackets' point guard Daniel Henry made his fair share of trips to the charity stripe en route to a game-high 22 points, while Brandon Ford chipped in 19.

"I just wanted to play hard because last game I didn't play too good," Henry said. "We just didn't want to start out slow. But we did. We weren't worried, we were fine. We kept playing and told everybody, keep playing, keep playing, don't worry about it. It had been like that all season and we still came back to win."

Falcons' point guard James Jordan scored 14 and Phil Poteat had 11. But Central had no one else in double figures, and was unable to carry momentum over from its big victory against Douglass last Friday.

"The truth is, the Douglass game we came together as one," Pugh said. "We shared the ball, we passed, we moved. Tonight, we disbanded each other. We didn't play together."

Gwynn Park 73, Central 57

Gwynn Park 15 18 18 22 -- 73

Central 16 10 10 21 -- 57

Gwynn Park (9-5): Daniel Henry 22, Brandon Ford 19, Tion Barnes 12, Brian Hall 8, Jarvis Hawkins 6, Nick Walton 4, Kevin Walters 2.

Central (4-8): James Jordan 14, Phil Poteat 11, Calvin Lovitt 9, Jumar Jennings 7, Damarkus Thomas 7, Darrius Pugh 4, Devonte Perry 2.