Pikesville girls basketball surges past Patterson Mill, 44-31, for spot in 1A state title game; Mountain Ridge topples Forest Park

Mar. 8—Mountain Ridge and Pikesville girls basketball each punched tickets to the Class 1A state championship game with wins Tuesday night at Richard Montgomery High School.

While the Miners needed to hold off a comeback attempt — without a shot clock — in the first game of the doubleheader, the Panthers followed with a decisive second-half rally.

The University of Maryland's Xfinity Center will host the state championship game between defending champion Pikesville and a Mountain Ridge team riding the high of what coach Rob Duncan called an "unbelievably special" opportunity.

Here's how Tuesday night's action played out.

Mountain Ridge topples Forest Park, 37-20

Sydney Snyder took care of business for Mountain Ridge.

The junior guard outscored Forest Park by herself, lifting her team to a spot in the state championship game with a 37-20 victory.

History books will remember it as the state playoff game without a shot clock. Neither coach was given advance notice, instead finding out mere minutes before tip-off that it was broken. The officials also didn't warn either team that they would be enforcing 10-second violations, creating even more confusion in the opening minutes.

The game still went on as scheduled, and Mountain Ridge struck first and never looked back. The Miners held Forest Park scoreless through the first quarter and to single-digit scoring totals in each of the remaining three quarters.

Mckenzie Fitzgerald (five points) broke the seal with a layup in the opening minute of the second quarter. Sophomore Aliyah Carroll led the Foresters with eight points on two 3-pointers.

Snyder was the game's main attraction. Fourteen of her 21 points came at the free-throw line.

"It was challenging trying to get up the floor with all that pressure," Snyder said of Forest Park sending multiple defenders at her. "But I knew I had to make it to the basket. With all that pressure that usually means you're going to get fouled."

"No one puts more time in the gym," Duncan added about his point guard. "She is in that gym nonstop working on her shot. You saw the reward of that today. She is an extremely hard worker. No one in our area puts as much time in the gym. She's honed her craft."

With a double-digit lead to start the second half, the Miners changed their game plan: use the lack of a shot clock to their advantage.

Snyder ran circles around Forest Park's defense. She ate up chunks of the game clock. She'd run over two screens and feed a teammate. She'd run toward the ball and draw a foul. Rinse and repeat until sealing a trip to College Park.

"They're a team that can capitalize off no shot clock," Forest Park coach Jermaine Dunn said. "They're very disciplined holding the ball. They ran great sets at the end and we couldn't foul because they hit their free throws."

Pikesville rallies past Patterson Mill, 44-31

Pikesville handled adversity as well as one might expect of a defending state champion that's made deep playoff runs in recent years.

The underdog, Patterson Mill, hopped in the driver's seat to start. It played up to its competition and held a steady 21-13 lead at halftime as a result of its up-tempo style.

Panthers coach Michael Dukes turned to a zone defense in the second half to slow the Huskies down.

"We know the girls have the ability to stay resilient and we knew they wouldn't panic," Dukes said. "We just said they needed to calm down some and just finish a little more. There have been a few times this season where our zone defense has bailed us out. We played a great zone defense in that second half."

Pikesville manufactured a 23-5 run that started in the third quarter and bled into the fourth.

Where the Panthers failed to finish layups and struggled with ball security in the first half, they found consistent success in the second.

"I honestly didn't figure we'd be up by eight points [at half]," Patterson Mill coach Richard Wilhelm said. "I knew we'd be close. But I didn't know that we'd be up to the point where he wanted to make that change. It was a great move on his part. We panicked a little bit."

Senior guard Jayda Mayles was a strong piece of the comeback puzzle. Pikesville dissected Patterson Mill's 3-2 zone by overloading the strong side to pull defenders while the weak side guard relocated to the open corner. Mayles cashed in on three 3-pointers as a result. Bree Taylor added a fourth.

Danielle Weems led the Panthers in scoring with 12 points, making 6 of 8 free-throw attempts.

"This group has played with a chip on their shoulders all year," Dukes said. "They heard the whispers that we weren't going to be very good early on with the transfers and so forth. So they played with a chip all year. And here we are."