Towson Catholic

Most attendees arrived at the Towson Catholic High School Class of 2010 graduation in beach attire. The graduates had already done the cap-and-gown thing at numerous other high schools, where they were scattered when their alma mater closed before their final year. Graduates crammed into restaurant booths and sipped sodas as they caught up on their unexpected senior year. Their parents tossed them a party at a Parkville crab house to give the graduates each a tasseled mortarboard, in the Towson Catholic blue and gold, and one last memory of the school.

Baltimore Catholic League commissioner Jack Degele said he's seen the five former players - Leon Dickerson (Cardinal Gibbons), Darryle Edwards (Calvert Hall), Darnell Harris (St. Frances Academy), Phil Lane (St. Maria Goretti) and Robbie O'Conor (Loyola Blakefield) - that will be inducted into the BCL Hall of Fame on Thursday evening at the Rolling Road Golf Country Club in Catonsville actually play for their respective teams. Degele also watched former Calvert Hall coach Mark Amatucci lead the Cardinals to the 1982 mythical national championship, knew former Cardinals Gibbons Athletic Director Larry Callahan and saw Barry Scroggins (Mount St. Joseph)

FROSTBURG -- Towson Catholic (25-11) found itself in a 12-0 hole just 3:31 into the game and could not dig itself out in losing the Alhambra Consolation Championship game 62-55 to Archbishop Carroll (19-13) of Washington here last night.Timothy Washington scored eight of Carroll's first 12 points and was the game's leading scorer with 25, as the Owls could get no closer than five points, which came with 15 seconds left in the game. Carroll maintained a 12- to 15-point lead through much of the game.

Bradford Burgess scored 22 points and the host Virginia Commonwealth men's basketball team took advantage of every Towson turnover Wednesday night, beating the Tigers, 66-43. The Rams (21-5, 12-2 Colonial Athletic Association) have won 10 in a row and 18 of their past 20. The Tigers (1-25, 1-13) committed 28 turnovers. Burgess had been quiet in the previous four games, scoring eight, eight, nine and six points. He was 8-for-15 from the field, including 6-for-11 from behind the arc. D.J. Haley added career highs in points (10)

Faced with rapidly declining enrollment and mounting debt, Towson Catholic High School will not open for classes in September and becomes the archdiocese's first high school to close in many years. The co-educational school notified parents and its 20-member faculty of the decision by letter and e-mail on Tuesday. Towson Catholic, founded in 1922 as the parish high school for Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, claims among its alumni the NBA's Carmelo Anthony and Donte Green, Olympic gold medalist Anita Nall, Christian music artist Janna Long and several Maryland legislators, including Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier.

Gil Goodrich, a 5-foot-8 shooting guard who averaged 16 points, four assists and two steals for Catholic League champion Towson Catholic, transferred earlier this week to Newport Prep School in Kensington, officials from both schools confirmed yesterday.Goodrich continued to practice with the Owls until Tuesday, the day his transfer became official.Newport Prep athletic director Stacey Lawrence confirmed yesterday that Goodrich participated in Thursday night's 95-63 victory at Wilson of Washington and departed yesterday with the team for the Keystone Roundball Classic at Lebanon (Pa.)

FROSTBURG -- Ben Melmeth scored 16 points and had six rebounds and four assists and Justin Henderson added 12 as Judge Memorial of Utah edged Towson Catholic, 53-46, for fifth place in the Alhambra Tournament at Frostburg State last night.Senior center James Burrell led Towson Catholic (24-13) with 16 points and had eight rebounds.Reggie Rhinehart added 15 and nine rebounds for the Owls, who led 17-10 after the opening quarter.Judge Memorial outscored Towson Catholic, 14-4, in the second quarter to take a 24-21 halftime lead.

There's bad news for Southern High basketball opponents. The second-ranked Bulldogs have won their two games against top-20 teams this season by margins of 36 and 25 points, and coach Meredith Smith said they are going to get better.No. 6 Towson Catholic couldn't match up yesterday with the Bulldogs' quickness or size, as Southern raced to a 78-53 win in a Maryland Scholastic Association A Conference Division II game."I thought there was some improvement," said Smith, who wasn't satisfied with his team's season-opening 83-47 victory over Calvert Hall on Friday.

For the second time in eight days Towson Catholic used its pressure defense to disrupt the Cardinal Gibbons offense, and it resulted in the championship of the 21st Catholic League Tournament.The second-seeded Owls (22-11) used the inside scoring of Sharif Butler, the floor leadership of Sydney Johnson and the shot-blocking of James Burrell to topple the regular-season champion Crusaders, 73-60, and take their first Catholic League tournament title since 1989 at Loyola College's Reitz Arena last night.

The Catholic League got its glamour matchup as regular-season champion Loyola and defending tournament champion Towson Catholic earned semifinal wins in the 22nd Catholic League Tournament at Loyola College last night.Top-seeded Loyola (23-8) used a superb 24-point effort from senior Wes Unseld Jr. to open a seven-point fourth-quarter lead and then the Dons staved off a late three-point surge by No. 5 seed Calvert Hall (19-11) to score a 65-63 victory in the second semifinal last night at Loyola College.

Old Dominion stayed atop the Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball standings by extending Towson's record-setting losing streak Wednesday night. The Monarchs, led by Nick Wright with 13 points, shot 52.7 percent from the field to beat Towson, 71-41. The Monarchs (11-8, 6-1), who have won five of their past six games, kept pace with CAA co-leader George Mason, which beat Delaware, 89-63. Robert Nwankwo had 12 points to lead the Tigers (0-19, 0-7), whose Division I losing streak reached 38 games.

The Baltimore Catholic League will hold its 2nd Hall of Fame Banquet May 3 at 6 p.m. at Rolling Road Country Club in Catonsville. This year's inductees include six players: Tim Coles (Cardinal Gibbons, 1982), Leon Dickerson (Cardinal Gibbons, 1988), Darryle Edwards (Calvert Hall, 1981), Darnell Harris (St. Frances, 2004), Phil Lane (St. Maria Goretti, 1996) and Robbie O'Conor (Loyola, 1975). The class will also include one coach, Mark Amatucci (Calvert Hall), and one contributor, Larry Callahan (former Cardinal Gibbons athletic director)

Et cetera Former Hokie Delaney signs with French club Chalon Former Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney (Towson Catholic) has signed a contract with the French club Chalon, according to his father, Vincent . Delaney had tweeted about signing the deal earlier in the week and will still be eligible for the NBA draft Thursday. NBADraft.net and DraftExpress.com both have Delaney going undrafted. If he's not selected, he is expected to honor his contract with Chalon.

Former Virginia Tech point guard Malcolm Delaney has signed a contract with the French club Chalon, according to his father, Vincent. Delaney had tweeted about signing the deal earlier in the week. Delaney, a former Towson Catholic star, will still be eligible for the NBA draft. If he goes undrafted, he is expected to honor his contract with Chalon. NBADraft.net and DraftExpress.com both have Delaney going undrafted in Thursday. The Baltimore native has worked out for many NBA teams, including the Washington Wizards last week.

Malcolm Delaney has one thing on his mind leading up the NBA Draft: Prove the skeptics that think he'll go undrafted wrong by showing off the skills that made him such a dynamic scorer in high school and college. After withdrawing from last year's NBA Draft and returning to Virginia Tech for his senior year because he wasn't likely to be selected in the first round, the Baltimore native is once again being projected to be on the outside looking in come June 23. For Delaney, who worked out for the Washington Wizards with five other NBA hopefuls Thursday morning, it's an unusual situation and something he wants to show shouldn't be the case.

Watch Carmelo Anthony play basketball these days, and you can't help but feel like you're witnessing a man doing his job with very little semblance of joy. To suggest that Anthony has quit on the Denver Nuggets, the team he has spent all 71/2 years of his NBA career with, would be unfair. For the most part, Anthony's professionalism remains. He still plays hard in short bursts, picking his spots and rarely pressing. His jump shot, honed years ago on the blacktop courts of urban Baltimore, has retained its beautiful arc. But if you paid close attention to Anthony's body language Tuesday night at Verizon Center as the Nuggets faced the Washington Wizards, the only reasonable conclusion you could reach is that sense of obligation -- not passion -- is the emotion driving his play right now. Anthony flashed one brief smile Tuesday, in the third quarter, when Wizards fans chanted his name to try to distract him as he shot free throws.

Towson Catholic coach Mike Daniel preaches execution. On paper, his seventh-ranked team's 93-55 win over Dundalk in the opening round of the Baltimore County Holiday Invitational at Perry Hall yesterday was a model of textbook execution.But Daniel was less than impressed."Our execution was just OK, and I emphasize the just," said Daniel, whose team improved to 5-3 despite a large number of turnovers. "We showed we've got a lot of work to do. A lot of work."The Owls shot nearly 50 percent from the field while using their height advantage to outrebound Dundalk by a wide margin.

Senior guard Malcolm Delaney had said before traveling here with his Virginia Tech teammates that Maryland "might have the worst fans ever. " Predictably, Delaney was serenaded with boos from the student section before and during the game. But the best revenge for fans -- the reply they really counted on -- would have been a Maryland victory. That didn't happen, as the Hokies scored the game's first 12 points and weathered a second-half Maryland run for a 74-57 victory. Delaney, meanwhile, scored 19 points.

Jurisprudence Gallo sentenced to 51 years to life for Adenhart's death The young motorist convicted of murder for driving drunk in the car crash that killed Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart of Williamsport was sentenced to 51 years to life on Wednesday. Prosecutors said they sought the maximum term for Andrew Gallo , 24, because the pitcher and two other people died in the crash and his blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Gallo was on probation for a previous drunken-driving offense at the time.