Basketball

Senior Keirah Hicks started her high school basketball career at Southside but transferred after her sophomore year to Western, looking for stronger academic and athletic challenges. She played in the state finals with Southside as a freshman, but when coach Dafne Lee-Blakney left, Hicks departed too. With the No. 2 Doves, she is one of the better players in a strong backcourt. The 5-foot-6 guard averages 11.1 points as well as 2.7 assists and two steals. Hicks wants to play in college and is considering her options.

Boys Josh Asper Hereford, wrestling The junior won a battle of Class 2A-1A state champions, 6-2, over Southern of Garrett County's Justin Ratliff at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House on Saturday night to become the Bulls' first three-time state titlist. The 160-pounder earned his 24th pin of the season in his first of four tournament bouts, and won his next three matches by a combined 18-3 to raise his record to 39-0 this season and 114-7 for his career. Asper has won 50 consecutive bouts since an 8-7 loss to Hammond's three-time state champ, Vince Taweel, in February 2006.

April Anderson Greene taught her son, Donte, much more than how to play basketball. As a federal government employee, she took him around the world and showed him the difference between a game's outcome and real loss. Today, the Towson Catholic senior is one of the nation's top high school players, with potential that has earned him a scholarship to Syracuse, but because his mother died unexpectedly six years ago and isn't alive to see it, Donte Greene twice tried to throw everything away by attempting suicide.

River Hill lacrosse coach Keith Gonsouland knew senior Daniel Hostetler was special after playing a one-on-one basketball game against him when Hostetler was an eighth-grader. "Even though I was bigger and stronger than him, he played so hard," Gonsouland recalled. "As I remember, he fouled me every time I posted up. That impressed me, because he kept coming at me and didn't quit. That desire to compete is what makes him exceptional and sets him apart in all of the sports that he plays."

BOYS Tommy Brenton River Hill basketball The 6-foot-4 senior had 58 points, 35 coming at the free-throw line, 20 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and five steals to lead River Hill to victories over Mervo and Bethesda-Chevy Chase of Montgomery County and to the program's first boys state basketball championship. In Thursday's 62-53 semifinal win over Mervo, Brenton scored 16 of his 30 points at the foul line, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked four shots, and had three steals and three assists.

Senior forward Warren Gordon scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in an upset of Westminster last week. Gordon, 6 feet 3, averages four points, 5.5 rebounds and one assist a game while blocking a team-leading seven shots this season for the Panthers (9-6). His coach, Lloyd Ford, said the most impressive thing about Gordon is, "he just plays like he's having a good time." Talk about your performance in North Carroll's win over Westminster. I just stayed focused and stepped up for that game.

Girls Miriam McKenzie Oakland Mills, basketball The 5-foot-8 senior guard averaged 29 points and 14 rebounds and had a triple double in leading the Scorpions (5-0) to three victories. McKenzie had 24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 59-36 win over Long Reach. She added 38 points and 18 rebounds against Reservoir and 25 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals against Marriotts Ridge. A second-team All-Metro selection a year ago, McKenzie averages 28 points and 13 rebounds this season.

About a year ago, Bob Wade took a tour of the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards along with other state high school athletic administrators who were in the facility for a meeting. Wade, the legendary former football and basketball coach at Dunbar, had an idea what to expect - and what not to expect. "People who had taken the tour had told me there was hardly any basketball in there. Not just the professionals and the colleges, but no mention of Dunbar ... or any of the rich history of high school basketball," Wade, now the city schools' athletics director, said this week.

Overall No. 1 picks in the NBA draft can't hide. Some are more visible than others. Then there is LeBron James. James, who made the jump from high school to the NBA, pulled on a No. 23 jersey - fully knowing its significance - and lifted an entire city, not just a franchise, onto his back. Tonight, Ohio's favorite son will play on basketball's grandest stage, when he leads the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first NBA Finals appearance, against the San Antonio Spurs. At 22, James is not the youngest player to reach the Finals, but perhaps he is the youngest to do so with so much pressure and so many expectations on him. Since James entered the NBA in 2003, he has lived with comparisons daily.

Girls Asya Bussie Seton Keough, basketball 6-foot-3 junior center faced some of her most formidable post opponents last week and led the No. 1 Gators to four wins. She averaged 12.8 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.8 blocks in wins over No. 4 Arundel, No. 6 McDonogh, Towson Catholic and Mount de Sales. She had 10 points and 14 rebounds in the win at Arundel and 22 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks at McDonogh. Bussie, an All-Metro selection last winter, averages 15 points and 11 rebounds for the 10-0 Gators.

Maryland men's basketball Burney to miss 2009-10 because of foot injuries Junior forward Jerome Burney won't play this season because of continuing foot problems, the team announced in a news release. Burney, 6 feet 9 and 222 pounds, has missed most of the past three seasons with foot injuries. He averaged 0.9 of a point and 1.9 rebounds in nine games last season after redshirting his freshman year and playing in 17 games in 2007-08. "Jerome is very much a part of this team even though he won't be playing this year," coach Gary Williams said in a statement.

The Maryland men's basketball program has received a major boost to its 2010 recruiting class. Mychal Parker, a 6-foot-6, 185-pound small forward from the Miller School in Charlottesville, Va., committed to the Terps late Wednesday night. He joins Tucson (Ariz.) Santa Rita point guard Terrell Stoglin and Montrose Christian shooting guard Terrence Ross as part of the Terps' 2010 recruiting class. All three players are ranked among the top 150 prospects in the country by Rivals.com. Parker, the No. 53 player in the nation according to Rivals.

Colleges Memphis says it found no evidence of wrongdoing Memphis says it should keep the victories from the 2007-08 season that ended in the national title game after an internal investigation turned up no proof that a former men's basketball player cheated on his SAT. "Certainly, the University of Memphis should not suffer a financial penalty or vacation of records for the 2008 NCAA tournament as a result of this allegation," a report detailing the...

Each Tuesday in the Toy Department, veteran Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's going on in his/her life in a segment called "Catching Up With ..." When he chose pro basketball over a medical career, folks thought Jack Marin should have had his head examined. Play for the bedraggled Baltimore Bullets rather than become a doctor? Forty-three years later, Marin has no regrets. The Bullets' top draft pick in 1966 wouldn't change a thing.

Marriotts Ridge pitcher Tim Blair stood behind the dugout fence at a recent game and joined his teammates in heckling the opposing pitcher. He seemed anything but bored and couldn't care less that he and his Mustangs teammates sounded like a gaggle of distressed geese."

Every time a city basketball legend like Marvin Webster passes away, the void screams louder. Where is Baltimore basketball's place of honor? Where do the sport's versions of Johnny Unitas and Cal Ripken Jr. go to be immortalized? As Webster's friends, family, teammates and coaches said goodbye to him last week, they pondered those questions, and of course had no answer. They believe their sport is as close to the heart of Charm City as football and baseball - that, in fact, while the individual teams in other sports are revered in Baltimore and throughout Maryland, basketball stakes a much greater claim.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Angel McCoughtry is writing a book. The Louisville senior has been working on it all season, in fact. The working title is "The Angel Who Wanted to B-more," she says, and it'll be an inspirational tome about a girl who grows up in Baltimore, overcomes challenges and hardships and eventually leads her college basketball team deep into the NCAA tournament. She carries the book around on a flash drive, the file ready to be updated whenever inspiration strikes. McCoughtry says it's almost finished, but even she isn't quite sure how it'll end. Ideally, she says, the happy ending writes itself, beginning with the Raleigh Regional final Monday night against top seed Maryland.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -Five months earlier, an awkward and undersized group of basketball players took the court at Comcast Center and began its season with Maryland Madness, the first official practice of the season. Expectations were low. One publication even picked the Maryland men to finish dead last in their conference. Their own fan base was already fracturing, as even longtime supporters were starting to question the future and the effectiveness of head coach Gary Williams. "We're going to prove some people wrong," predicted Greivis Vasquez, the Terps' bold and colorful junior.

When Todd Bozeman turned water into proverbial wine and delivered Morgan State to the NCAA men's basketball tournament last week, it ended one of the longest, most withering droughts in history. Not only had the Bears not reached the tournament since joining Division I in 1983, but they had also enjoyed just one winning season over the next 23 years before Bozeman arrived as coach in 2006. On Sunday, an hour after Morgan received the 15th seed in the South Region - and a date tonight with No. 2 seed Oklahoma in Kansas City, Mo. - Bozeman paid homage to the school's long-suffering basketball fans.

Will Barton Lake Clifton, basketball The versatile 6-foot-6 junior forward closed out a stellar season leading the No. 1 Lakers to the Class 3A state title and a 28-0 record. On Saturday, Barton set the tone in the Lakers' 75-50 win over Friendly in the title game, scoring 10 of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter, hitting two three pointers and a highlight dunk. He added nine rebounds and three assists. He averaged 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for the season. Barton, who made the honor roll this year at Lake Clifton, hasn't selected a college.