No. 3 Parkville shoots past Dulaney

Whenever Parkville High senior guard Caron Smith holds the basketball in his hands near the 3-point line, the partisan Knights crowd and his teammates alike draw in a collective breath of anticipation.

That expectation of a made 3-pointer swelled to a sizable crescendo in the second half of Friday night’s game with visiting Dulaney, and for good reason.

Smith buried nine shots from behind the arc, including five in a wild fourth quarter, for a game-high 37 points to power the No. 3 Knights to an 81-73 victory in Baltimore County Division I contest. Parkville improved to 12-0 overall (4-0 Division I), while the Lions fell to 10-3 (2-2 Division I).

“It means a lot of people know shots are going in,” said Smith of the electric atmosphere with the ball in his adept fingertips.”I just caught fire; I had a slow start, but I never lost confidence, I kept shooting. This is a big win. We’ve practiced for this all week.”

Smith knocked down six 3-pointers in the second half to help the Knights turn a 3-point halftime advantage, 37-34, into as much as a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter following his last 3-pointer from the right wing in transition with the Lions unable to get back in time to contest the shot. It might not have mattered had they recovered defensively as Smith buried a couple of his shots with a hand firmly in his face from well beyond the arc in that pivotal final eight minutes of action.

“It’s very simple: they were tougher than us tonight. They made more plays than we made tonight (and) Caron . . . shot the leather off the ball,” Lions coach Matt Lochte said. “They made more plays than us. We were right there and when it was time to step up and make a play, we didn’t do it. They were the better team tonight. I’ve got a feeling these two teams will meet again come March in the playoffs.”

The first half showed that a rematch would be worth the price of admission as the two teams went back and forth behind the play of Dulaney’s Jamariez Corley-Scott (23 points) and Paul Gross (17 points) and Parkville’s Josiah Legree (19 points) and Smith, who poured in 15 first-half points for the Knights, who have now won 34 straight regular season game and 58 out of their last 62 contests.

The Lions, with Gross doing most of his damage inside the paint on post-ups, eked out an 18-17 lead after the first quarter with the Knights charging back behind 10 points from Smith and another six from Legree to forge the narrow halftime advantage.

“The defensive intensity in the first quarter just wasn’t how we usually play defense,” said Knights coach Josh Czerski, who recorded his 100th win at Parkville with Wednesday’s win against Sparrows Point. “I knew that was going to step up once we got a little halftime speech in. They got to hear what they needed to hear (and) obviously, Caron with 37 points, helps with that win.

Parkville had a crucial 13-4 jaunt to open the second half that included a 3-point play by Legree, a heavily contested 3-pointer from Smith from the right wing, and five free throws with aggressive drives or rebounds at the basket to forge a 50-38 lead with 4:32 left in the third quarter.

The Lions closed to within six at 56-50 earlier in the fourth quarter before an alley-oop dunk from Favor Okigweh (nine points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and a pull-up jumper by Smith pushed the lead back to 10.

Smith then buried five more 3-pointers the rest of the way to stake the Knights to the comfortable victory.

“There’s been pressure (to keep winning since) before the season started. There’s a ton of pressure. We’re the biggest game on everybody’s schedule, so we know they’re coming for us, and I think we enjoy that: getting everyone’s best game,” said Czerski, whose team’s last regular season loss came in Feb. 2020. “You’ve got to withstand a couple of runs; it’s not just one or two runs, and they made some good adjustments tonight. We were just able to run our stuff and let the guys play freely. That’s what got us the result we wanted.”

NO. 3 PARKVILLE 81, DULANEY 73

Dulaney 18 16 14 25 - 73

Parkville 17 20 19 25 - 81

Dulaney - Jamariez Corley-Scott 23, Paul Gross 17, Eric Zhang 17, Patrick Wynne 9, Peter Hylind 7. Totals: 30 11-16 73.

Parkville - Caron Smith 37, Josiah Legree 19, Favor Okigweh 8, Dwain Worsley 6, Cayne Woodland 6, Andre Moore 3, Chima Egeonu 2. Totals 31 9-14 81.