Sometimes it the little things that matter. A tweak here and a fix there. That’s what New Town coach Stephen Quillens told his team at halftime Wednesday against visiting Perry Hall.
“We were committing too many fouls in the first half and my players weren’t listening,” Quillens said. “That zone [defense] they played gave us a little trouble, but we just needed to stop with the fouls and get going.”
That’s exactly what they did.
After leading by eight at the half, the host Titans turned it up in the second half to defeat visiting Perry Hall, 54-36, in a key Baltimore County Division II game.
New Town (12-4, 8-0) was led by Milan Clark’s 13 points, while the Gators (10-6, 5-6) were led by 14 each by Tamiya Brown and Belen Ros.
“I thought we could have played better and things could have gone better for us, but we switched some things up and things started to get better,” Clark said. “We stopped committing fouls and putting them on the line, and our defense improved in the second half.”
“I knew we couldn’t press them. I knew if we tried, we’d be in trouble,” Perry Hall coach Scott Rudolph said. “I’d seen some film and decided to run a 1-2-2 zone defense against them, and it gave them some trouble for a while.”
The Titans looked to be in control most of the third quarter, but Perry Hall started to make a game of it midway through the frame. Trailing 30-17, the Gators got buckets from Maddy Rudolph and Tamiya Brown, as well as a 3-pointer from Sophie Blevins to cut the margin to five at 33-28 with 2:47 left in the third quarter.
Unfortunately for Perry Hall, New Town went on a mini-run, outscoring the Gators 7-1 for the rest of the quarter to take a 40-29 lead after three.
The Titans put the game away early in the fourth quarter. New Town got a layup by Clark, a 3-pointer by Makiah Pollard and another layup by Tarshay Bell to start the quarter on a 7-0 run and push the lead to 47-29.
Randolph said that he was pleased with the effort he saw from his girls in the loss.
“We kind of ran out of gas a little down the stretch,” he said. “To be within [five] to a very good team in the county late in the third quarter, I told them I was really pleased with the effort.”
The start of the season has gone well, but now the Titans will face their nemesis when they travel to Pikesville on Friday. The Panthers are annually the class of Baltimore County women’s basketball.
Clark admitted that the game against Pikesville has been on hers and her teammates minds for a while.
“Yes, it has,” she said. “They play a very aggressive style, but we have to be ready to come out and meet their intensity. I think we’ll be ready.”
Perry Hall 54, New Town 36
PH 9 6 14 7 – 36
NT 11 12 17 14 – 54
PH – Brown 14, Moreno 14, Rudolph 3, Blevins 3, Tan 2.
NT – Clark 13, Bell 9, Dower 9, Green 7, Jones 6, Pollard 4, Matthews 3, Vines 3.
Have a news tip? Contact sports editor Anthony Maluso at [email protected], 567-230-6024, x.com/TonySunSports and instagram.com/TonySunSports.
