With two minutes left, Archbishop Spalding’s starters took their well-earned seats on the bench, laughing and clapping.
As far as they were concerned, they beat Calvert Hall long before then. Earlier in the third quarter, even — at least, that’s how TJ Moultrie and Malik Washington felt.
The Cavaliers’ defense slowed what had been a dangerous Cardinals offense by the end of the third. And that had always been Spalding’s best asset: rebounds feeding a “very good transition game,” coach Josh Pratt said.
They just needed these past few weeks to fully unite and translate their bond into a dominant 69-51 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference quarterfinal win. It’s camaraderie and trust the Cavaliers (21-8) will need come Thursday’s road game against Mount Carmel, but playing six of their past seven games in hostile environments, they know they have it.
“I think we’re just tough,” Moultrie said. “We’ve been through a lot. When stuff gets tough, we come even more together.”
Eight Cavaliers contributed to Tuesday’s triumph, including three double-digit scorers: Washington (19 points), Moultrie (14) and senior Jaylin Sykes (11).
“Everybody’s sharing the ball; there wasn’t a lot of ball-sticking or going one-on-one. That led to easier points,” Washington said. “Everybody got a feel for the game, which allowed everybody to play better.”
For three of four quarters, the paint was a haunted house Calvert Hall moved into — and Washington was its resident ghost. The junior blocked and bodied out Cardinals at their slightest hesitation or their fiercest conviction, and when he wasn’t the arbiter of every basket on the other end, he assisted most of them.
Had Spalding finished most of its early looks, it might’ve left Calvert Hall in the rear-view mirror early. But it didn’t. Layups sailed over the net too often.
“We just need to get refocused,” Moultrie said, “go back and fix those little things before Thursday.”
Because of that, all the turnovers spilling out to the sidelines didn’t stop Cardinals seniors Brendan Johnson and Tyrin Bizzelle from scoring enough to breathe down Spalding’s neck, down 14-12 after one before taking the lead in the second.
Cavaliers chased Calvert Hall’s shooters more, relenting the perimeter and surrendering fouls.
“The biggest thing was to get the ball out of [Johnson and Bizzelle]’s hands. As soon as they do, we wanted to double and rotate. I thought we’d gotten away from that in transition and they got the lead,” Pratt said. “And we missed quite a few easy layups. But I just knew we had to take them out of the game.”
The lead changed allegiances five times. Only on the fifth swap, and a Spalding timeout, did momentum choose sides.
The Cavaliers swarmed Cardinals ball-handlers, creating turnovers leading to Washington’s 3-point play to end the first half with a 33-29 lead.
The winds of change stilled for a few minutes of the second half until Bizzelle ended three minutes of scoreless action with a 3-pointer. That just seemed to trigger Spalding back into action.
“We got a lot of stops in a row and it got the energy up as a team,” Washington said. “Even though we weren’t scoring, we knew the ball was going to fall eventually.”
Junior Kameron Carter threaded high-speed through a blur of opposing red, linking with Washington for a dunk and a 41-34 lead.
Spalding told itself so long as it could follow stops with buckets, there was nothing else to do. Its guards smothered Calvert Hall’s first chances into rim ricochets back into Cavalier hands, and the few Cardinals baskets that did leak through were countered by Spalding shots.
“Once we started doing that, it was over,” Moultrie said.
Against Spalding’s rotations and contesting, the Cardinals’ perimeter attacks vanished. Bizzelle never spoke through field goals again; Johnson hardly did.
“I think we’re a really close-knit group overall,” Pratt said. “Everybody wants to play and everybody wants to support each other.”
Spalding — 14 19 15 21 — 69
Calvert Hall — 12 17 7 15 — 51
AS: Washington 19, Moultrie 14, Sykes 11, Newton 7, Mike Lonergan 7, Elijah Barrett 6, Carter 3, Moe Lonergan 2
CH: Johnson 18, Bizzelle 13, Dean Mimaros 5, James Foster 4, Tucker 3, James Traynham IV 2, JT Taggart 2, Maclaren Latoga 2, Jonathan Nalty 2