Gwynn Park rolls to rout of Long Reach
Yellow Jackets hit century mark, get set for trip to Glenelg
The Gwynn Park High School boys' basketball team executed a dominating press and scored at will in a 100-50 victory against Long Reach High of Columbia in a 2A South Region quarterfinal game in Brandywine on Monday night.
The Yellow Jackets (15-8) will advance to the 2A South Regional Semifinal on Wednesday when they will travel to second-seeded Glenelg High School in Howard County to face what should be tougher competition than they encountered Monday night. Glenelg was a 72-58 winner against Marriotts Ridge in another regional quarterfinal on Monday.
From the opening minutes, Gwynn Park dominated Long Reach (3-21). The Yellow Jackets jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first three minutes of the contest, forcing two turnovers, and blocking a shot as they ran the floor in a fast-paced game.
"We really wanted to make them play at our tempo," said Gwynn Park coach Mike Glick. "We wanted to push it and force the issue - and I think we did a great job of that. I felt like our guys really executed the game tonight."
Long Reach was virtually powerless to do anything against the Yellow Jackets' press and committed 14 turnovers in the first half as Gwynn Park took a 49-12 lead into halftime.
"A team from Howard County is not used to the press out here, so we wanted to use that to our advantage," said Gwynn Park guard Daniel Henry, who led the team with 22 points.
The Yellow Jackets dominated the second half as well, eventually hitting the 100-point mark for the second time this season.
"It felt good," said Henry. "It was the seniors' last game at home so we wanted to come out and play hard. It's the playoffs so we didn't want to lose."
The Yellow Jackets will face a much more challenging Glenelg team on Wednesday night, but plan to prepare like they would for any other game.
"We are going to prepare the same way we always do," said forward Tion Barnes who had 20 points against Long Reach. "We're just going to work harder. We'll forget this game and come out and practice hard."
One thing Gwynn Park will need to address in practice is free-throw shooting. The Yellow Jackets shot just 41 percent from the line against Long Reach - a low percentage that could come back to haunt them against more rigorous competition.
"It has been our greatest weakness the whole entire year," said Glick of the Yellow Jackets' free-throw shooting. "That's something we will have to do a better job of on Wednesday - knock down our free throws and get into our press."
The fast-paced tempo is something Gwynn Park will look to continue against Glenelg, but the Yellow Jackets expect they will have to execute some of their fundamentals better if they are going to come away with a win.
"I think we play our best when we are up-tempo," Glick said. "Glenelg is a very disciplined and a very smart team. Being on their home court will be a different style of play, and we're going to have to play a little better than we did today."
