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The Panthers, on the other hand, were cold. They missed their first 13 shots and did not make their first field goal until 40 seconds left in the first quarter.
Visiting Mount Carmel had four players score in double figures as they defeated Annapolis 74-57 at the 33rd annual Fred Stauffer Capital City Classic on Friday night. The school from Essex has won three tournaments this season, including their own Cougar Classic in early December and the Mid-Atlantic Invitational in late November.
Senior forward Dwayne Wheeler scored 17 points to lead the Cougars (12-1). Seniors Stanford McNair and Marcanthony Franks added 16 and 15 points respectively. Troy Franklin rounded out the double figure scorers with 11. Bilal Small chipped in seven points and made two three-point shots.
Mount Carmel started the game on an 11-0 run. McNair opened the scoring on a lay up from Franks. Wheeler scored six points and Franklin hit a three-pointer on the spurt.
Garee Boston ended the 11-point run when he made a free throw with 3:14 left to play in the first quarter to end a 4:46 minute scoring drought for the Panthers (4-2). Bryant Eng made the first basket for Annapolis when he followed a missed shot and made a lay up with 40 seconds left in the quarter. Mount Carmel had an 18-3 lead after the first.
In the second, McNair scored eight points, which included a steal that he turned into a lay up. Franks added seven in the quarter that was capped by an alley-oop dunk from Franklin that electrified the crowd.
The Cougars outscored the Panthers 23-17 in the second to build a 21-point lead at the half. Of the total 33 made field goals by Mount Carmel, 21 were assisted. Franklin led the way with eight helpers, some of which were of the behind the back and no look variety. Rummell King had four assists and Franks contributed three assists from his center position.
"Our philosophy is that what we play on the defensive end and that pushes us on the offensive end. We're playing good team defense and it correlates to good team offense," said Mount Carmel head coach Tom Rose. "Our guys did an outstanding job of finding the open man and really playing well together."
Wheeler and Franks combined for 12 points in the third quarter as the Cougars maintained their 21-point lead at 65-44 at the beginning of the fourth.
Boston scored 10 points in the second half, including two of his three made shots from behind the arc but the defending Capital City Classic champions never got close to the Cougars.
Franklin, who is headed to Towson University to play basketball for the Tigers and was named the DigitalSports Player of the Week in December, is usually the recipient of double teams and receives most of the attention from opposing teams. But the Cougars proved against Annapolis that they are a dangerous team up-and-down the lineup.
"We're more than a one man team," coach Rose demands. "We've got seven seniors on this team, five of them start. Five of them were in our top eight rotation when we won the [B] conference championship when they were sophomores. When we look at it from that standpoint, they know how each other plays and they look to make the other pass."
Mount Carmel 74, Annapolis 57
Mount Carmel 18 23 24 9 74
Annapolis 3 17 24 13 57
MC--Wheeler 17, Franklin 11, Franks 15, McNair 16, Small 7, Groom 2, King 4, Johnson 2. Totals 33 6-13 74.
A--Boston 17, Eng 11, C. Brice 12, Beck 3, Holliday 2, Watson 2, S. Brice 2, Williams 2, Butler 4, Brown 2. Totals 21 11-18 57.
Half--Mount Carmel 41, Annapolis 20.
