All Patterson Mill girls basketball coach Jeff Burrows could do was repeat the same four words.
What are you doing?
His voice grew louder each time he asked the rhetorical question. He knew answers were fleeting as Edgewood, which often frustrates opponents this way, raced out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter and seemed prepped to only grow it from there.
But the Huskies climbed back. Burrows became more satisfied and his players got more confident. Once a double-digit gap shrank to four, then three, then two, then finally a Patterson Mill lead in the game’s final moments.
The Huskies won the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference girls basketball title game Tuesday, 47-39, in a shocking comeback over Edgewood. After its difficult opening quarter, Patterson Mill outscored the Rams 38-16 over the final three.
Burrows, irate an hour earlier at his team’s performance, was pumping his fist, clapping and almost dancing in front of his bench by the end of a game that couldn’t have started worse.
“I looked at my team and I just did not understand what was going on,” he said. “Like, we haven’t been like that all year. But I told them, ‘We got to get punched in the mouth and see if we can get up.’ And we did.”
Edgewood, which was without senior guard and reigning county Player of the Year Sam Donovan on Tuesday, led 23-9 after the first quarter. Then the Huskies — and Burrows’ temper — steadied.
They trimmed their deficit to seven entering halftime. Burrows credits, among intangible changes, switching to a half-court trap defensive look that gave the Rams problems. That continued to start the second half. Edgewood’s lead got as small as four early in the third quarter, then three near the end of the frame before a late Rams surge, highlighted by a deep Jael Erickson 3-pointer, grew their advantage back to eight to begin the fourth.
Patterson Mill allowed just two points in the final frame while it scored 18 over the game’s final eight minutes to race ahead. To start the game, it was Huskies players whose heads hung low in confusion. By the end, Edgewood’s were doing the same.
“It just wasn’t the team I’ve coached to 20 wins and two losses, but then we kind of figured it out,” Burrows said. “I’ll go to war with these guys, and we’ll see what happens.”
It’s Burrows’ first season coaching Patterson Mill, but not his first time working with many of these players. He coached some years ago at Emmorton Elementary in Bel Air. Burrows — who also coaches his daughter’s middle school team, baseball at North Harford and formerly led the Hawks’ boys basketball team — received a call from Patterson Mill boys basketball coach and athletic director Jeroud Clark last year asking to coach those familiar faces.
“I thought I was going to retire,” Burrows said. “I was done.”
Clark and Burrows shared an embrace during the postgame celebration. “What a great three quarters!” he shouted jokingly while the team posed for photos. He’s happy he changed his mind now.
Patterson Mill boys fall to Elkton
Patterson Mill’s boys team took the court before the girls, but did so without point guard Kai Gibson. The senior was sidelined with an injury Tuesday, one that Clark said won’t keep him out of the state playoffs, which for the Huskies begin next week after their first-round bye.
But on Tuesday, Patterson Mill struggled against Elkton, which handed the Huskies their only regular-season loss (by 21 points in January), to drop the conference championship game. With the 60-57 win, the Elks became the first Cecil County squad to win a UCBAC championship since the conference reintroduced the format last spring.
Patterson Mill still has not lost to anyone else this season. But Clark isn’t one for silver linings.
“We lost,” he said. “Patterson Mill’s not into moral victories. We’ve been doing this for too long.”
Gibson’s absence was evident early when Elkton raced to a 7-0 lead, which drew a quick Clark timeout. It only temporarily slowed the Elks, who led 23-15 after the opening quarter and 35-25 at halftime.
An evenly matched third quarter gave way to a thrilling fourth. Patterson Mill cut its deficit to one after Alex Kropp scored five straight points — a score, steal, score, then free-throw sequence that brought the noise from the Huskies contingent in the bleachers to an apex. Then, when the Elks answered, James Hammond responded with a 3-pointer to give Elkton a 58-57 lead.
But that was it for Patterson Mill, which watched a potential game-tying Coale Washington 3-pointer bounce off the rim in the final seconds to seal the three-point defeat.
“We’ve been in wars,” Clark said. “There was probably between five and eight calls at the end of the game that didn’t go our direction. In a close game, when you don’t get the calls that are supposed to be yours, that’s what ends up happening.”
Patterson Mill is the only boys basketball team in Harford County to earn a top seed in its region for the state playoffs. The Huskies will either see Pikesville or Havre de Grace in the second round, but they have higher aspirations than that.
They’re chasing their first state title in school history. This group is perhaps their best shot.
“I would say we’re peaking at the right time, for sure,” Clark said.
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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