Boys Basketball: No. 10 Bowie 61, Bladensburg 59

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By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

All of the Bowie Bulldogs basketball team's eyes focused on the group of three officials on the far end of the Bladensburg basketball floor.

As the officials huddled, the Bulldogs ceased its celebrating for a quick second. That, until the trio confirmed that a Kyle Jordan tip-in basket at the buzzer indeed left his hands before the buzzer expired, and the celebrating was continued.

The Jordan tip-in basket, off of a teammate's miss, gave Bowie the 61-59 victory and allowed the Bulldogs to walk off of the floor victors.

Jordan had six points in Monday night's contest. All three of his baskets, and subsequent six points, came from virtue of a tip-in including one in the first quarter, another in the third and the final buzzer-beating shot.

"I was just hoping that when Mike would drive, I would be able to get a tip-in," Jordan explained. "When we were on the bench, I was just dreaming that would happen and it did."

"Kyle just said he was trying to get the ball up," Bowie's Nate Goldsmith said. "He tipped it from the side and when it went in we were all screaming."

As thrilling as the victory was for the Bowie, 15-2 and ranked No. 10 in the DigitalSports Beltway Ballers poll, it did not come without a few hiccups along the way.

Going into the locker room down one, 27-26, after a 7-point second quarter, the Bulldogs went on a 9-0 scoring run building an eight-point, 35-37 lead and eventually an 11-point lead midway through the third period.

The Mustangs chipped away at the lead for the duration of the second half and eventually cut the lead to 59-56.

The come-back efforts culminated with a Jerald Williams game-tying, three-pointer with 15.9 seconds remaining, setting up the dramatic Jordan finish.

"We have to stop putting ourselves in these positions," Bowie head coach Cedric Holbrook said. "We had at least two double digit leads in this game. ... If we don't allow ourselves to get complacent and we play with focus the game doesn't get to [a buzzer-beater].

"Williams hit a big shot. ... I like the fact that my kids kept their composure and that we did the right things to actually win the basketball game."

"I hit a game-winning shot last year against them," Williams said, "and I just thought that I had to do it again."

As Jordan turned in his heroics in the final seconds, Goldsmith paced the Bulldogs for the prior minutes as he finished with a game-high 25 points, including 10 points in the fourth quarter during critical moments of the contest.

"I was just trying to go straight to the rim," Goldsmith said. " ... I just tried to finish at the bucket every time I could."

Bladensburg was led by low-post presence Russell Barnes as he netted 20 points to lead all Mustangs and scored 10 fourth-quarter points himself in efforts of landing the Mustangs a victory.

Coming down the stretch run of the season, each win is important, even more so for Bowie as its only two losses of the season came from the hands of Laurel, its chief competitor atop the 4A divisional standings.

As far as if his team's mindset is at a level where he wants it to be heading into the last part of the season, Holbrook added: "Yes and no. Yes, because we are finding ways to win games. No, because we don't win as convincingly as I think we should.

"It is a process that we have to go through, and I just hope that we get through it real quick. We don't want to be playing games like this in the playoffs."

E-mail: James A. McCray III

Bowie 61, Bladensburg 59
Bowie           --   19   7   21   14; Goldsmith 25, McDade 10, Castleberry 6, Jordan 6, Carithers 5, Rodriguez 3, Ewii 3, Jacas 3

Bladensburg   --   11  16  11   21; Barnes 20, J. Williams 13, Reed-Lafortune 11, Wade 8, Johnson 5, Jordan 2