First-year Annapolis girls basketball coach Arbrey Butler wanted to keep his team under wraps.
But as the Panthers overtook a fiery Meade team in the fourth quarter to earn their eighth win of the winter and fifth in the county, 47-42, that may be harder to do.
“It’s hard when I’m their third coach in three years,” Butler said. “So we just tried to compete and have a fun night. One game at a time.”
Only South River, a preseason favorite to win the county, has gotten the better of the Panthers so far, and it came back in December in Annapolis’ first game. The Panthers’ roster features two seniors and no juniors.
The underclassmen fell into teachable moments all game long Wednesday night, but rolled with them. They struggled to execute on offense but then turned around and hit every key layup in the last minutes of the game.
They’re young, but they’re going to be very good.
“We’re playing together as a team. That’s the only thing we gotta do,” said sophomore McKenzie Fuller, who scored 16 points. “That’s the only thing that’s going to work.”
Fuller averaged 19.1 points per game going into Wednesday’s snow makeup game. Knowing that, Meade (4-6) did all it could to contain her — maybe a little too much.
Kennedy House’s shot from beyond the arc put Meade ahead 40-34 in the fourth quarter. Fuller said the noise of the crowd started to get to her, but she knew she had to shut everything out.
The sophomore pulled up and sunk a 3-pointer. Audrey Skinner followed with a layup to cut the lead to 40-39. After a timeout, the Panthers jumped ahead for good.
The controlled tempo Meade established earlier tangled up in the pressure and spit out bad shots on the other side. With 50.6 seconds left, Harmon drew her Mustangs in for a timeout, but her play design unraveled as soon as her players met Annapolis’ defense. Tying shots fluttered away like paper in the breeze. Attempts to recover gave Annapolis the last word of the game at the foul line.
“We had to be very aggressive and active on defense and recover fast,” Fuller said. “We threw their momentum off.”
The embers of Meade junior Alexis Wharton’s hot start were slowly stomped out as Annapolis’ Audrey Skinner caused turnovers to create points at the other end — predominantly at the foul line. But misfires in the paint prevented the Panthers from fully taking advantage of their defensive predisposition.
Fuller’s 3-pointer brought the Panthers within 10-8 after the first quarter. On the other side, Skinner, who finished with 15 points, hit baskets to push Annapolis ahead, 15-10. Her sister Amelia’s two-point shot drove Meade to a timeout.
“Turnovers and missed free throws kill us,” Meade coach Cat Harmon said, “especially in these tight games.”
Intensity swelled between the two teams as Wharton (12 points) complimented her jumper with a 3-pointer to knot the score at 19, but Fuller replied instantly with her own two points. Annapolis eventually headed into halftime up 21-20.
However in the third quarter, Meade forward Kira Black came alive, hitting a pair of baskets and coverting two foul shots.
Fuller took on a miniature rivalry with her through the quarter, responding to the Mustang’s attacks with two layups of her own. As the last seconds waned, both sides threw all they had into boxing the glass as much as they could but went into the fourth quarter tied before Annapolis surged late.
Thanks to snow days, Meade has played four games since Saturday. On Thursday, it’ll have its first practice in seven days. Not being able to break down mistakes to better prepare for these tight situations is bad enough, but Harmon saw fatigue dragging her team down, too.
“It’s really getting them to slow the pace down so we can speed it back up,” Harmon said. “And we just couldn’t get into it. We didn’t get a lot of the transition points we’d see in the first half.”