When Western's All-Metro guard Akeema Richards picked up her second foul less than five minutes into last night's Baltimore City girls basketball showdown with Digital Harbor, it appeared the No. 2 Doves could be in trouble. When Keirah Hicks joined Richards on the bench for most of the second quarter, the Doves had two of their top three guards sitting.

Against a tough No. 7 Digital Harbor team, coach Tiffany Silver certainly didn't want that.

But it didn't matter too much, because the Doves bench picked up the slack and took a 21-18 lead into halftime. That kept Western in position to eventually take a 58-81 win in a game that will help determine which of three teams -- Western, Digital Harbor or No. 4 City -- wins the division and earns a berth in the city championship game Feb. 24 at Morgan State.

Coming off the bench last night, guards Tenicia Spence, Janay Newman and Mikee Stevenson combined for 13 of the Doves' 21 first-half points.

Those performances came as no surprise to starting guard Ashle Craig, who along with Hicks, led the Doves with 14 points.

"They knew what they were supposed to come in and do," said Craig. "That's what we expect from them and they came out and played a good game. They're good and they proved it."