Published: March 03, 2008 10:28 am         

Chesapeake roars past Garrett

Skipjacks take control early, beat Lakers for Region XX title, 96-74

HAGERSTOWN - The first few minutes told the story, and for the Garrett Lakers the story turned out to be a nightmare.

Top-seeded Chesapeake scored the first 13 points, made 20 of its first 31 shots in building a 22-point lead, and rolled to a 96-74 win over Garrett in the Region XX, Division I men's basketball championship game on Sunday afternoon.

Tournament MVP Andrew Lee, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, had 29 points on 13-for-16 shooting, and added seven rebounds and four assists in leading the Skipjacks (27-3).

Ty Newman was 9-for-13 from the field and had 24 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Aubin Reeves was 6-for-6 and had 14 points.

Terrance Wright (11 points) and Preston Faulk (10) gave the Skipjacks five double-figure scorers. They shot 41-for-61 (67 percent) as a team, including 7-for-11 (63 percent) from three-point range.

"The first few minutes of each half, absolutely, are most important,'' said Chesapeake coach Ron Mappas. "I thought our guys played outstanding, the whole way. Offensively they moved the ball and were very unselfish.

"Andrew Lee's played great like all year. He does everything for us. He's a great passer, excellent rebounder, great low post scorer and can handle the ball up front.

"That's the strength of our team ... the whole team, not just the guards, can put the ball on the floor and go by you on the dribble. That's a big plus."

Reeves scored the first two buckets, Lee scored on a fast break, Barry Bratten had back-to-back shots inside, and Lee turned an offensive rebound into a three-point play as Chesapeake bolted to a 13-0 lead just 3:58 into the game.

Shawn Greenfield finally broke the ice for Garrett with a jumper at the 15-minute mark, but there would be no slowing the Skipjacks.

The largest lead of the half was 45-23 with nearly three minutes left. At that point, Chesapeake was 20-for-31 shooting and had 19 rebounds. Garrett (18-11) was 9-for-24 with six rebounds.

"We came in knowing how well they shoot the ball,'' said Garrett coach Dennis Gibson. "You have to stop them, and answer. We average about 70 points per game, so we were at our average. The 96 points we allowed is the most all year. We just had a bad game."

Chesapeake, which had beaten Hagerstown 122-111 in the Maryland JUCO semifinals last week, scored 90 or more points for the 13th time this year.

"It's hard,'' Gibson said, seeking an answer to his team's start. "How do you get a team prepared to play in this kind of a game? I wouldn't think a coach would have to do much, at least mentally.

"It seemed like our championship was yesterday,'' he said, referring to a 75-71 win over No. 2 Hagerstown, "which is unfortunate. We've got good kids and they've worked hard. But we didn't have the same enthusiasm as Saturday. We just didn't do anything right the first five minutes, and that pretty much predicted the whole game for us."

Terrance Taylor had 14 points, all-tournament Shawn Greenfield added 13 points and four assists, and Glen Izevbigie had 12 points and five rebounds for Garrett.

Chesapeake led 49-30 at halftime and had four three-point goals and a three-point play in the first nine minutes of the second half to build a 74-44 lead. Garrett scored 30 points in the last 11 minutes.

Chesapeake beat Garrett during the regular season, at Garrett, 78-69.

"We had a good season, although we thought we were a bit underachieving,'' said Gibson. " We lost some games that we should have won, and we had Chesapeake down by seven in the second half and then they went on one of those scoring blitzes and we never recovered.

"But, runner-up in the region is better than we did last year. It's an improvement, but this was a disappointing loss.

"The Maryland JUCO and the region is really, really good. There may have been some better individual teams in the past but, overall, this is the strongest Maryland JUCO since I've been in it. You have to come to play every night, and tonight we were just not ready to play."

In the Division II final, Otamere Oronsaye hit a three-point shot from the corner with one-tenth of a second left in overtime to lift Prince George's to a 98-95 win over Cecil, which entered the game 29-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Contact Mike Mathews at mmathews@times-news.com.