Pikesville sophomore Ka’nai Pyatt scored a game-high 20 points and junior point guard Mariah Jones-Bey had a game-high nine steals to lead the Panthers to a 57-25 victory over visiting Hereford.
The game could be a preview of the Baltimore County championship game which will be held on Feb. 25. Pikesville (17-1) has already clinched it spot by winning Division II. Hereford (13-4), Towson and Milford Mill are tied in Division I.
On Friday, Hereford’s Megan Hess scored the first basket of the game, but Jones-Bey knocked down a 3-pointer a minute later and the Panthers never trailed again. Pyatt made two 3-pointers and Maya Chase scored five points to stake the Panthers to an 18-9 first-quarter lead.
Hereford sophomore Shea Kanning sparked the Bulls off the bench with four points on her way to a team-high 16 points.
“She hasn’t been the leading scorer, but she has been coming on over the past month,” Hereford coach Ray Burrows said. “She’s a sophomore and she has been playing very well.”
The rest of the Bulls combined for just nine points against a relentless Pikesville defense that got faster and quicker as the game wore on with Jones-Bey as the catalyst. She averages nearly seven steals a game and is one of the leaders in the state.
“She always does something for us,” Pyatt said. “She is our point guard. Once she gets the steals, it gets the whole team’s energy rising and that’s what the coaches want: defense, steals, fast-break layups and that’s what we are best at.”
After getting eight steals in the first half, the Panthers had nine in the third quarter when they extended a 17-point halftime lead to 25.
“They sped us up. We got tired and we turned the ball over and we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight,” Burrows said. “I attribute some of that to Pikesville. They play very good defense and we just didn’t put the ball in the basket. We didn’t handle their defensive pressure very well.”
“Defense wins games,” said Pyatt, who added five steals.
Pikesville coach Michael Dukes, who has led the Panthers to four straight state championships, agrees.
“I watched [Hereford] on film and I thought they looked good, but we just played tremendously, defensively today,” he said. “We really, really made it hard.”
They also made it hard on the boards, out-rebounding the Bulls, 35-21.
Briar Rose Moore led the way with eight rebounds and Pyatt, Jones-Bey, Chase and Qaidence David had six each.
“We were excited about this team from Day 1 in camp, but they have definitely superseded our expectations,” Dukes said. “I mean for us to be with this young team [no seniors on the roster], sitting at 17-1, we couldn’t be more pleased with that.
“We lost to the number one team in Delaware, Caravel Academy, at the Diamond Classic in the championship game and I felt good coming down the road from that game. We were competitive and I said I don’t think we’ll see a tougher team than this all year.”
That will determined as they move toward their ultimate goal: a five-peat.
“[States] is what we are looking at for sure, for sure,” Dukes said.
Pyatt, who won a state title as a freshman last year, isn’t looking too far ahead and knows they have to polish some things to get there.
“We just take it game by game, we just let it come to us,” Pyatt said. “Honestly, I think we just have to communicate more, but everything else. I think we have it down pat.”
Hereford found that out the hard way.
MM — 18 11 12 16 — 57
HERE— 8 4 4 9 — 25
MM: Ka’nai Pyatt 20, Maya Chase 10, Qaidence David 7, Mariah Jones-Bey 5, Makayla Brooks 5, Briar Rose Moore 4, Myah Willis 4, Skylah Anderson 2.
HERE: Shea Kanning 16, Megan Hess 3, Gabby Viscuso 2, Aaliyah 2, Grace O’Reilly 2.
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