By KATHERINE FOMINYKH | Kfominykh@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED: December 22, 2023 at 10:27 p.m. | UPDATED: December 22, 2023 at 10:30 p.m.

Ashton Truman ran the words through his head as time ticked down and Northeast boys basketball bounced back once again. The 3-pointers the Meade junior had landed, the free throws he’d sunk, none of it stopped the Eagles.

Spurred by guard Cam Albury, Northeast compressed the deficit to a basket or two, much as it did several other times Friday.

But Truman and his Mustangs never let them flip the lead in those moments. When they needed to most, the Mustangs scored.

“Going through my head was: ‘It’s time to score,’” said Truman, who did just that with 24 points. “I felt like I had to have the ball in my hand because I knew I was hot.”

Despite the stress those final seconds caused, Meade preserved a 61-58 lead over Northeast on Friday night at home, handing another expected county front-runner their second loss of the winter and christening a pretty optimistic December for itself.

“We’re a young team that needs to learn how to finish games,” Meade coach Mike Glick said. “We made some inexperienced plays, forced the ball in transition, threw the ball away, giving them second shots, leaving Albury open for shots toward the end. But you know what? To our credit, the kids hung in there down the stretch.”

As much hope as there was for this talented bunch to rebuild last year’s state runner-up swiftly, the proof couldn’t come out of the oven until there was time to bake. From what Glick can see from this 5-1 team — its one loss at the hands of another 5-1 team in South River — things are going exactly as they should.

The strength of Meade on Friday was not only its constant subbing, drawing from a depth it truly did not have — or necessarily need — last year. Northeast coach Roger O’Dea said the scouting reports prepared the Eagles for the revolving door, although admittedly watched his team struggle in moments to figure out who to mark on the fly. Meade’s power was not only in the hot hands, either, although that was most certainly Truman, followed by junior forward Jaisean Kenner (15 points).

“The thing I’m most impressed about is their resiliency to win and their togetherness,” Glick said. “I mean, last game, we’re down to Atholton, who hit 13 3s against us. And they found a way to win. So I’m pleased.”

Northeast both struggled to protect the perimeter and shoot from it. Meade senior Zamar Jones took advantage of this for as long as he could, leading the charge from outside while Kenner swung matters for Meade in the paint.

The Mustangs’ first-half shooting was markedly more effective than Northeast’s as a whole, but its ball control dissolved toward the end of the first quarter and into the second. And while the Eagles could not kickstart their 3-point shooting — and not for a lack of trying — more possessions meant Northeast slashed the 15-8 deficit at the end of the first to 21-20 in the second.

It took nearly losing control to spark fire beneath the Mustangs. Truman salvaged the lead with a timely 3-pointer, before junior Lucaya Baldridge and Truman again sprinted for baskets.

With six seconds left, Albury plucked a long toss, raced into the paint as Mustangs flanked around him, and landed a final shot to make it 28-22 at halftime.

“Once we saw the game on the line, we got the intensity back we wanted,” O’Dea said. “We play that way the whole time, well …

“[Albury’s] got to look for his shot a little earlier in the game, but when you got some really good players, you got to teach them how to jell and find that hot hand. They’ll start to do that.”

Led by Kenner and Truman, the Mustangs made good use of both long and short range, laying down 14 straight points for a 42-30 lead.

To this point, Northeast had not landed a single 3-pointer. Albury corrected that drawn-out deficiency with a pair of them, sandwiched by three layups, knocking the Mustangs lead down to seven and driving Meade now to two timeouts — and then dropped in a few more on the other side of it. Turnovers persisted to dog Meade; its staff pleaded with players to “slow down” just as they’d overthrow a pass.

“It’s a lot of guys getting used to playing varsity basketball, with each other,” Glick said. “A number played on JV together, but in this atmosphere, there’s little things. There’s a couple plays like: Lucaya went to the basket, went too far, not sure he was going to get the pass. Just mistakes that come with not playing with each other.”

Truman, however seemed determined to keep Meade afloat, with six points interjecting Albury’s rampage and pushing the margin back to double-digits, 55-45, with two minutes left.

Glick wasn’t surprised. Truman was Meade’s junior varsity leading scorer. While he did not start to begin this season, he’s earning it now.

“I feel like everybody’s got to realize it’s next man up,” Truman said. “Today, we had talks about how it was going to be: if we get down, next man has to step up, play defense, make shots. Everybody’s gotta be ready.

But offensively, it could not fall so heavily on Albury if the Eagles wanted to win. Shamar Johnson hit two shots, Jadyss Fifer hit one and two foul shots. But still, with basket or free throw, Albury and crew could not overwhelm Meade’s defense in the end.

“Unfortunately, we ran out of time to set a play up,” O’Dea said.