Boys Basketball: Knights maintain momentum, take down Boosnboro 60-41

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                       

The Middletown High School Knights Boys Basketball team has tried all year to get hot and as of recently they had finally found their stride winning 5 of their 7 final games in the regular season.

So, during their sectional quarterfinal round match-up of the 2015 Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (M.P.S.S.A.A.) 2A Boys Basketball Tournament against the #5 seed Boonsboro High School Warriors, the hope would have been that this momentum had carried over from the regular season.

The Knights would get that and more as they rolled to a 61-40 victory over the Warriors on Friday February 27^th.

Middletown and Boonsboro would match each other punch for punch in the 1^st quarter with the Knights jumping out to an 11-6 lead but the Warriors storming back to make it 14-12.

In the girls basketball playoff game just hours before the offensive power outage came for both teams in the 4^th quarter, as Middletown and Boonsboro combined to only score 5 points in that quarter.

In this game the offensive power outage would only befall Boonsboro and it would not just hit them but it would hit them hard. The Warriors would score a bucket with around 45 seconds left in the first quarter but would not score a field goal for the whole second quarter.

Boonsboro would only put up 1 point in the 2^nd quarter coming on a free throw about halfway through the quarter. Middletown would use this to their advantage and pull away from the Warriors, going on a 14-1 run over the 2^nd quarter and doubling the Warrior lead.

The Warriors were not content to lie down though as they would come out strong in the 2^nd half cutting the Knights lead down from 15 to just 9 and forcing the Knights to call a time-out and regroup with 3:43 left in the 3^rd quarter.

The time-out would work just the way the Knights needed it too as they would outscore the Warriors 6-3 to finish the 3^rd quarter and give themselves a 40-28 lead heading into the final 8 minutes.

Middletown would come out even stronger and put Boonsboro away early in the fourth quarter, going on a 14-6 run over the first 4 minutes of the quarter forcing Boonsboro to call a time-out with 4 minutes left and the game seemingly in the bag for Middletown, with the Knights up by 20, 54-34.

Middletown would put in their reserves to finish off the game and it was a fitting way to end the game considering the game was a beginning to end full team effort. Nine Knights players would record points for an offense that over the course of the winning streak has thrived on its depth and been versatile in they way they have been scoring.

On any night the Knights have multiple weapons to hurt teams. It could come from inside, like it did against Boonsboro in the form of Knights senior Will McClain who had a team-high 17 points for the Knights.

It could come from the smooth-handling guards like Knights junior Clay Smith who had 7 points to compliment his 5 assists with most of those assists leading to buckets by McClain inside.

Or it could come from the bench, like Middletown senior Zeb Ahalt who didn’t see significant playing time until the late 2^nd quarter but managed to put up 6 points off of 2 3-pointers.

Middletown will look to maintain the same momentum and pace that they had as a team and their offense have played with when they face their next playoff opponent, the #1 seeded Oakdale High School Bears who the Knights have fallen to twice, by 6 and 9 points respectively.

The Knights have a large challenge in front of them but with a team that has a good bit of momentum on their side the challenge is appearing to get smaller and smaller.