From a news release:

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) has been selected as the recipient of proceeds from the 10th Annual Paul Sherry Shootout Basketball Tournament to be played at The Bryn Mawr School on Saturday, December 12, 2009. The women’s varsity basketball team from Bryn Mawr will match up against Roland Park Country School at 1:00 P.M.; and Mt. de Sales Academy will play the varsity women of Pope John Paul the Great High School from Dumfries, Virginia at 3:00 P.M.

The Sherry Shootout Benefit Basketball Tournament honors the memory of Paul Sherry, a longtime leader within the Towson Recreational Council. Mrs. Jan Sherry, her three daughters and son have helped to carry forward Paul Sherry’s significant legacy through this tournament. The Sherry Shootout Benefit Basketball Tournament is sponsored by The Collaborative Group and other generous sponsors with all proceeds from the event being donated to the selected charity. The Sherry Shootout has raised nearly $75,000 for local charitable organizations.

Posted by baltimoresun.com at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball
        

The fall season is still in full swing for most athletes, but here's a look forward to one of the top annual basketball events: the Basketball Academy.

The lineup for the 14th Annual Basketball Academy at Morgan State Jan. 14 through Jan. 16 features some of the area's top boys and girls teams. Make your plans now.

Thursday, Jan. 14
Digital Harbor girls vs. Milford Mill, 3:30 p.m.
Mervo boys vs. Randallstown, 5 p.m.
City girls vs. Perry Hall, 6:30 p.m.
Dunbar boys vs. Woodlawn, 9:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 15
City girls vs. Milford Mill, 3:30 p.m.
Digital Harbor boys vs. KIMA (DC), 5 p.m.
Western girls vs. Riverdale Baptist, 6:30 p.m.
Lake Clifton boys vs. Ballou (DC), 8
City boys vs. Longwood (NY), 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 16
Woodlawn boys vs. Mervo, 10:30 a.m.
Perry Hall girls vs. Archbishop Spalding, noon
Randallstown boys vs. Digital Harbor, 1:30
Digital Harbor girls vs. Riverdale Baptist, 3
Douglass boys vs. KIMA, 4:30
Parkville boys vs. Dunbar, 6
City boys vs. Ballou, 7:30
Lake Clifton boys vs. Longwood, 9

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Boys basketball, Girls basketball
        

Digital Harbor's All-Metro point-forward Asia Logan has committed to play basketball for the University of Pittsburgh.

Logan, who led the Rams to their first state title last winter, averaged 19 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks in leading the team to its best record ever (24-3). In the state Class 1A championship game, she had 21 points, 13 rebounds and went 15-for-16 from the free-throw line in a 50-41 win over Surrattsville.

Her final four also included Virginia Tech, Maryland and Villanova, but she said she knew it would be Pitt as soon as she visited the campus.

"Just the energy was great and the atmosphere, I just fit in as soon as I walked in," Logan said. "The team was so cool. They're a little goofy and I really liked that."

Logan, who has an 85 average, plans to major in psychology and wants to work with teenagers.

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball
        

At the beginning of the high school sports season, you often hear about a new school opening and how its athletes are ready to start something big. It’s not often you think, in September, about the end of something big.

With the closing of Towson Catholic, however, it is the end of something big -- especially in basketball. At times throughout its 86-year history, Towson Catholic had girls and boys programs that ranked among the best in the country.

The girls were a national power in the 1980s and most recently ranked among Baltimore’s top teams between 2005 and 2007, with stellar guard Marah Strickland on the roster.

Michael Dukes, the Owls' most recent girls basketball coach, had hoped to boost his team back into the upper echelon of the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference before he heard the school would not open its doors this fall.

Dukes said he heard about the school’s closing at a basketball tournament this summer. He tried to keep the news from his daughter, Chelsea, the team’s top returning player, but she started getting text messages, so he had to tell her sooner than he would have liked.

Chelsea Dukes, a senior, has enrolled at Seton Keough, where she should contribute for the perennially competitive Gators.

Michael Dukes said other players have enrolled all around the area: Aiva Parhan, Chaun Crocket and Blair Harding at Poly, Taylor Carter at Mercy, Brittany Lanahan and McKenzie Reese at Lutheran, Courtney Stephens at Gerstell Academy, Lakia Huff at Fallston and Quay Malloy at St. Frances. Gerstell also picked up four of the Owls' incoming freshmen: Mykeria Lewis, Jalen Porter, Sierra Naylor and Jada Scarbough, while Alexis Harrison is at Digital Harbor.

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball
        

Fallston's Jess Harlee knew exactly what happened when she felt the pop in her left knee three weeks ago at a basketball tournament in Georgia.

She tore the anterior cruciate ligament -- a major stabilizing force in the knee and an injury that usually requires surgery and about six months of rehabilitation. Harlee will have surgery Friday.

That means she will miss at least some of her senior season -- a terrible blow for the Cougars, who went 28-0 last season and won their first state girls basketball championship in an improbable 65-62 victory over defending champion Paint Branch. A driven player known for diving for balls and sometimes crashing into the stands, Harlee scored 28 points -- 19 in the fourth quarter -- and hit two clutch free throws with 3.3 seconds remaining to lead the Cougars to the Class 3A title.

The injury, she said, apparently happened in two parts while she was playing with her Fairfax Stars Amateur Athletic Union team at the Nike Nationals. The pop came on the simplest of moves when she was off the ball.

“I actually jumped and tried to grab a steal and I twisted my knee, but I ended up going back in and playing that game. I hit a three-pointer with like 40 seconds left to go and that’s what won the game.

“I played in the next game and I was good the whole first half and in the first minute of the second half, I just took a step back and it popped. That’s when I was out. I thought it was [a torn ACL],” added Harlee, who was able to walk off the court although the knee hurt badly.

Three days later, a doctor confirmed her fears.

Harlee, who also played volleyball for the Cougars, has been helping out at volleyball practice this week, but she doesn’t relish the role of watching.

“I try to keep a positive outlook. That’s all I can do, but it’s going to be really hard to watch,” she said.

Harlee made an oral commitment to West Virginia last spring and the coaches were on hand watching her play when she got hurt. They told her, she said, that the injury would not affect her scholarship.

She does plan to get back on the court with the Cougars as soon as she can. She doesn’t want to sit out the whole year.

“I think West Virginia was hoping I would do that, but I really don’t want to. I played with one eye, so I don’t want to sit out when I know I could go back in,” said Harlee, who missed five games as a sophomore with a scratched retina.

Harlee plans to throw the same determination into her rehab that she throws into all of her games, including that state final, which few outside the No. 4 Cougars bench believed they could win.

Fallston coach Mike McTeague has most of the players back, but Harlee was certainly the centerpiece. The Cougars improved their schedule to include Archbishop Spalding and Roland Park with Harlee’s leadership in mind.

“Obviously -- and I hate to use the word kill -- but it’s going to kill us,” McTeague said. “She was leading scorer, leading rebounder, leading assist. She led in every category. She was the most talented player on the floor every time, every game. The kids looked to her and she had the leadership role.

“That being said, I think she made a huge contribution in the fact that the kids now see what can be done, they see how far they can go. There’s no replacing Jess, but last year, a couple people stepped up. We’re not going to be as good without her, but hopefully, she showed them something and they accomplished something with her that they can work on. I’m hoping she’ll be around and working with them.”

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Shatyra Hawkes, the 5-foot-3 dynamo who sparked St. Frances to the IAAM A Conference championship as a sophomore and led them to the runner-up spot last season as a junior, has made an oral commitment to play for Xavier.

Hawkes, who averaged 17 points and five assists last season for the No. 2 Panthers (26-3), said Xavier actively recruited her for a year and that she felt they wanted her on their roster more than any other team. She also liked their schedule.

“They play a lot more competition than the other schools I was looking at,” said Hawkes, who also considered Loyola, Towson, Radford, American and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “I wanted to go somewhere competitive. I did see that they did good. They made the tournament and I thought it would be a good experience for me.”

Xavier, in Cincinnati, won the Atlantic-10 Conference regular-season title last season and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Division I tournament. The Musketeers (25-7), however, fell in the first round to Gonzaga.

Hawkes, who is considering a career in nursing, played Amateur Athletic Union basketball over the summer with the Maryland Lady Comets. She said she worked a lot on her passing and wants to continue to improve her passing game with the Panthers this winter.

“Xavier said they would play me at the 1 and the 2 (point guard and shooting guard positions), so I’m focusing on my passing, because most games, I looked to score. This year, I’ll look to pass more and if they need me to I’ll get my points.”

Unlike most players, Hawkes said she does not feel that the pressure is off just because she made a commitment. It's just in her nature to meet every challenge head on.

“It’s like I’ve just got to work harder and not let up,” she said, “because it’s going to get harder from now on.”

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball
        

When Arundel guard Talen Watson started looking at colleges, she looked well beyond just basketball. Planning to major in sports management and business with thoughts of becoming an ESPN anchor, Watson looked for the perfect blend of basketball and academics.

The 5-foot-7 All-Anne Arundel County guard found it at Massachusetts and has made an oral commitment to play for the Minutewomen of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Watson chose UMass over Seton Hall, Quinnipiac and Long Island.

“I just had a great time up there,” said Watson, of her official visit. “They showed me around campus and it was a blast. I had a lot of fun. What put it over the top was my major, sports management, is at that school and it’s No. 1 in the country. Whatever my major is, that’s what I needed to suit me, because I’m going to stay there for four years. I can’t play basketball forever.”

Watson had a breakout season last winter averaging 7.1 points and 3.9 assists as a point guard for the No. 7 Wildcats, who reached the state Class 4A semifinals.

During the summer, Watson played for Team Unique and she said she is looking forward to the high school season now that she has made her college decision.

“It feels great. The pressures is gone. I’m happy for me and my family. It’s right for everyone. I’m in a good situation,” Watson said.

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball
        

Two-time All-Metro forward Sheronne Vails, who helped the Arundel girls basketball team to two straight Class 4A final fours, has orally committed to play for Louisville.

Vails, 6 feet 5, averaged 11.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.8 blocks last season for the No. 7 Wildcats (22-5), who fell in the state semifinal after reaching the title game in 2007. Over the summer, she helped her Amateur Athletic Union team, the Fairfax Stars, reach the semifinals of the Nike Nationals.

Louisville coaches saw a lot of her this summer.

“I felt like they went after me the hardest,” Vails said. “They were at all of my AAU games that they could be. And I really enjoyed my official visit. I like the athletic program. They’re all one team. All the sports combine to one, and I like the atmosphere. I feel like I’m at home when I’m there.”

Vails opted for the Cardinals, who reached the national championship game for the first time last spring, over Duke, South Carolina and Wake Forest.

She said she communicated with former Louisville All-American Angel McCoughtry via the Internet and that McCoughtry, “told me it’s a good school.”

McCoughtry, an All-Metro forward at St. Frances before she played for the Cardinals and was the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream, played a small part in Vails’ decision. Vails had seen her play when she was younger while McCoughtry played AAU basketball with Vails’ sister LaTavia, who went on to play at Robert Morris.

“She did [play a small part in the decision], because I’ve seen how she developed her game and became a better player there,” Vails said.

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Girls basketball