Oakland Mills blows big lead but holds on for 91-85 win over Hammond
Version 0 of 1. Well before Oakland Mills and Hammond started their seasons earlier this month, the teams had circled Monday night’s meeting as a showdown between Howard County’s best. It took the better part of three quarters for the teams to hit their stride in Columbia, but when Hammond went on a 19-2 run to trim a 20-point deficit late in the third quarter, the game finally lived up to its billing. “Basically, this was like the game since the preseason,” said Oakland Mills’ Naquan Williams-Day, who led the Scorpions to a 91-85 win with 30 points. “Everyone was talking about, ‘Oh (Hammond’s) Brandon (Willis) is going to have 30 or 40’ — which he did. ‘Jarvis (Doles), he’s going to do this, that and the third. To be honest, all talk. We play on the same court as them.” Oakland Mills (6-1, 6-0 Howard) came out fast, feeding off the energy from its home fans. Senior guard Daniel Kiely, who finished with 27, was regularly attacking the rim with success, and his buzzer-beating three-pointer from well beyond the gave the Scorpions a 12-point lead. That advantage climbed to 23 at the end of the first half and 29 in the third quarter, but Willis, a standout transfer who has been a major reason for Hammond’s turnaround this season, hadn’t yet started his show. “Stop letting him drive to the basket,” Kiely said, recanting the message Coach Jon Browne emphatically shared with them at a break in the action late in the third quarter. “We were playing ‘ole’ defense, where we just let him drive past.” Willis finished with a game-high 35 points, including a few fourth-quarter layups that gave Hammond (5-1, 5-1) serious hope, but it was a three-pointer from the top of the arc with just over three minutes left that cut Oakland Mills’s lead to two, the smallest it had been since the score 7-5 early in the first quarter. That was as close as the Golden Bears would get. Oakland Mills was 20-for-32 from the foul line on the night, but Trevon Hopkins and Williams-Day each made a pair from the stripe in the final minute to hold off Hammond. “I’m not real happy right now, obviously,” Browne said. “We squandered away a nice lead that we worked very hard to build. We have to learn how to finish games strong. We had them on the ropes, but we couldn’t throw that knockout punch. That just goes to show you, it’s not over until it’s over.” |