Forestville Military Academy’s fans and players might have preferred if it went in.

Gwynn Park center Marcel Boyd, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound senior, left his feet midway through the lane, grabbed the missed layup in mid-air with his baseball-mitt sized hands and thundered the ball through the hoop for an emphatic dunk.

The gym at Gwynn Park was packed, but in that instant every seat was vacant. Rattled by the boisterous crowd and a mountain of momentum piling up against it, Forestville fell apart in the final 3 minutes, 30 seconds of the game and lost 88-63 to the Yellow Jackets.

“It’s definitely exciting and it gets the crowd going,” said Boyd, a Howard University recruit who said he was able to dunk for the first time as a freshman. “That’s what I love about it, getting everybody going like that.”

Boyd did more than excite the crowd. His 6-9 frame and impossibly long wingspan frustrated Forestville players throughout the game. And it was just because of his dunking. Every time the Knights managed to slip past Gwynn Park’s first line of defense, they faced Boyd in the lane, who would alter their shots or send them right back where they came from. The senior center finished with five blocks to go with 20 points and 15 rebounds.

“This was Marcel’s biggest game of the season,” said Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick. “He made a humongous difference. He played smart while with fouls ... today our size advantage was huge.”

A woefully undersized but scrappy Forestville squad trailed from the outset of the game. It took more than five minutes for the Knights to score their first points, but by then they were already trailing by 12. Five Gwynn Park players scored in the first quarter as the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a comfortable 21-5 lead.

“A start like that totally alters the game,” Glick said. “This is the second game in a row we have been able to do that and it made a big difference.”

But Forestville standout guard Juwan Cole didn’t let the Yellow Jackets run away with it. The senior dropped in 10 of his 24 points in the second quarter, getting to the free throw line 11 times and connecting on eight foul shots in the second period.

“We tried to get the ball out of his hands tonight,” Glick said. “If Cole isn’t the best player in the league he’s absolutely one of the top three or four.”

Cole helped bring the Knights back to within 10 points of Gwynn Park with 6:46 remaining in the game. But hot shooting by Jalen Harris and gritty inside play by Boyd helped the Yellow Jackets maintain control. Harris finished 18 points after scoring 25 in the Yellow Jackets’ 67-62 win against Surrattsville on Tuesday. Gwynn Park ended the game on a 25-10 run.

The Yellow Jackets lost in last year’s 2A state semifinals at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center. Then they lost most of last year’s varsity team to graduation. But their motivation this winter is clear.

“I’ll be any kind of player we need,” said Boyd after the game. “I’m just going to do whatever it takes to get back to Comcast.”

Gwynn Park 88, Forestville 63

Forestville 5 21 22 15 — 63

Gwynn Park 21 17 22 28 — 88

Gwynn Park (2-0): Marcel Boyd 20; Jalen Harris 18; Jarvis Hawkins 12; Xavier Richards 11; Trevor Ford 3; Terry Martin 2; Ackhel Bazil 2

Forestville (0-2): Juwan Cole 24; Clarence Johnson 19; Joseph Jackson 6; Terrell Strokes 6; Randell Nelson 4; Raymond Cooper 4