After a 1-1 start, the No. 16-ranked Severna Park boys basketball team gets a big test Wednesday (7 p.m.) when it faces No. 9 Archbishop Spalding (3-1).
Severna Park, considered a contender in both the tough Class 4A East region and the Anne Arundel County League, dropped its opener home opener, 68-59, to a so-so St. John's Prospect Hall (1-0) on Tuesday despite 26 points from Jon Garritt.
By Friday, the Falcons bounced back to defeat neighborhood rival Severn School, 70-56, with Garritt scoring 23. Severn is 0-4, but two of the losses by the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference team, have been to ranked teams in No. 14 Calvert Hall, 63-35, and Severna Park.
Spalding's only loss was to D.C. power Springarn, 81-69. Springarn is ranked No. 7 in the Washington area.
How well Severna Park plays against the defending Baltimore Catholic League champion Cavaliers could be an indication as to how well the Falcons will fare later in the season.
Non-league games can tell a lot about how good a team is and can expose weaknesses as No. 7 Annapolis (1-1), and unranked 4A teams Broadneck (0-2) and North County (0-2) found out this week. Annapolis was upset at home Wednesday by soon-to-be-ranked Dulaney, 64-61.
The Lions (2-0), from Baltimore County, won on a three-pointer at the buzzer on the home team's brand new floor. Veteran coach Rod Norris' Lions brought out the worst in the 3A Panthers.
"We played a very experienced team and we're a very inexperienced team, and they made us look like a very inexperienced team," Annapolis coach John Brady said. "We didn't get enough guys involved in the offense, our passing was horrendous and defensively we don't have a clue yet. We were lucky to [have a chance to win at the end]."
Work also needs to be done at North County, where the Knights hope to make a run in the 4A East. The Knights dropped their first two last week to No. 4-ranked St. Frances, 53-44, and at unranked Mervo, 60-51.
A 2-for-11 performance from the free-throw line hurt the Knights against St. Frances while foul trouble cost them in the Mervo game. A North County strength, the three-pointer, was evident in the Mervo game as Greg Scott launched six of the team's nine long-distance attempts.
Broadneck's freshman point guard, Andrew Holland, will long remember his first varsity start, a humbling, 74-31, loss at No. 14 Calvert Hall on Friday night. Holland and the Bruins, who committed 16 of their 24 turnovers in the first half, were never in the game as the Cardinals raced out to a 12-0 lead and had a 45-12 advantage at the half.
The Bruins lost to No. 2 Towson Catholic (5-0) yesterday, 61-31, and got more of the same, but all is not lost because of the coaching of Ken Kazmarek. If anybody can straighten things out, Kazmarek will and you can look for the Bruins to be competitive later in the county league.
TV can't miss
Brady will be featured on WMAR-TV Channel 2 by Keith Mills at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, but it won't be with his customary Panthers, but rather with his Brooklyn Park Youth Panthers. Brady is preparing for his second career by coaching his daughter Erin's recreational girls basketball team with former Brooklyn Park three-sport standout Johnny "O" Olecski.
Sideliners
Tom Albright's Southern Bulldogs (1-1) were stunned, 57-56, at home in Harwood on Friday by Old Mill (1-1). ... Lindsey Stover, a defender on Severna Park's state champion girls lacrosse team has signed an athletic scholarship to North Carolina. Stover joins teammate Nicki Barnes as a Tar Heels' lacrosse signee. Barnes was just named to the All-South Region team by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. Scott Peavler, who left Anne Arundel Community College after his women's soccer team was disqualified from the National Junior College Tournament for scheduling too many games, has been named an assistant coach at Tulsa University.
Have a note for Sidelines? E-mail patomalleysports@aol.com or call Pat O'Malley's 24-hour Sportsline at 410-647-2499.
