Boys Basketball: Dulaney's Playoff Run Ends at Patterson

As time ticked away on Dulaney senior captain Justin Armstrong’s high school career, all he could do was sit on the bench and cover his head with his red warm-up shirt, fighting back his emotions.

The No. 1 seed Patterson Clippers had a commanding lead, probably insurmountable even if there was a fifth quarter to be played, and there was nothing the Lions' leader throughout the season could do to save his team.

Patterson, which won the Baltimore City Division I High School Basketball Championship just over a week ago, kept pressing to the very end as fans urged them to score just two more points. Those two points would have given them 100 points on the evening.

Instead, standout point guard Aquille Carr dribbled the ball at midcourt and faked a shot as the buzzer sounded, ending a 98-69 defeat. It also ended the Lions’ season and chances at the 4A Boys Basketball North Region Championship.

Carr, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, was unstoppable throughout the night on his way to a 39 point, 16 assist, eight rebound evening. He made several deep three-pointers look effortless, drove for layups through tight holes, and played lockdown defense, forcing the Lions into numerous turnovers.

“Aquille is so quick. Pound for pound, he’s the most athletic player I’ve ever seen personally,” Dulaney head coach Matt Lochte said. “I got to coach against Carmelo [Anthony] in ’01. I got to coach against Rudy Gay three or four times. Pound for pound, Aquille is as athletic as anyone I’ve ever seen at the high school level.”

Prior to the game, Lochte said the Lions would have to score quickly and often, and tweeted that his team would need to score 75 points to win. Through the first 10 minutes, the Lions kept up with Patterson’s pace.

With a little more than six minutes left in the first half, the Lions held the lead, 31-30. But the Clippers’ up-tempo game started to click as they went on a 15-4 run to close out the half.

Coming out of the break, the Lions never relented to the city champions. When it seemed like the Clippers were ready to go on a big run, the Lions answered with a big shot.

With about three minutes left in the third quarter, Carr hit a three to increase the Patterson lead to 62-46. That was answered by a Lion three-pointer by senior Nick Libertini. Carr followed that with a shot from beyond the arc, but Libertini again responded from the corner with another three.

Dulaney senior Jake Mathey hit the front end of his two free throws on the next Lion possession, with the ensuing basket coming from Lion guard Chris Conway to bring the deficit back to 10, 65-55.

But before the buzzer sounded to end the period, the Lions turned the ball over three times and watched as Clipper guard Pete Carter lobbed a breakaway pass to Rickey Meekins for an alley-oop dunk, setting the tone for the fourth quarter.

The Lions were outscored 32-14 in the final period, ending their season.

“That’s been kind of our model the whole year. We wear teams down and it’s usually we try to be the first team to 80 points,” Patterson head coach Harry Martin said. “We want to push the ball, get enough stops to do that, but eventually we’re going to wear teams down … or get them into foul trouble, like we did tonight.”

During the regular season, the Lions finished 8-12, then posted a 1-1 record in the playoffs. The Lions will be losing Justin Armstrong#33 (17 points), Nick Libertini#11 (11), Jake Mathey#25 (4), Kelsey Randall and Donzelle Moore. But with a core group of players returning, it’s hard for Lochte not to get excited for next season.

“[After the game] I pulled out the Regional Trophy and I showed it to Will [Darley], Kyle [Williams] Gavan [Scanlan], and that’s our goal next year: to be a number-one seed so we’re not going on the road,” Lochte said.

“It was a very successful season. We got double-digit wins, we advanced in the playoffs—half the teams in the state don’t do that. … I’m extremely proud of these guys.”

Editor's Note: The photos featured in the post were taken earlier this season when the Lions took on the Vikings from Mt. Hebron.