McRoy Outscores Rockville During Watkins Mill Win

 Senior guard Jasmine McRoy is one of the greatest scoring threats to don a Watkins Mill uniform, amassing around 1,300 points in her four seasons on the hardcourt.

On Friday, playing in what could be the final home game of her high school career, McRoy displayed her offensive potency—by outscoring the opposing team.

McRoy buried a trio of three-pointers and finished with 27 points as the Wolverines defeated Rockville 61-24 at Watkins Mill High School.

Watkins Mill took control of the game early with a dominating first quarter. The Wolverines outscored Rockville 17-0 and forced the Rams into 11 turnovers. Watkins Mill led 20-0 before Lizzy Orman scored Rockville’s first points with 6:40 remaining in the second quarter. The Wolverines built leads of 28-2 and 33-5 before entering halftime with a 36-10 advantage.

“You have to go in there like they’re the greatest team ever,” McRoy said. “We have to play with a mentality that we’re in the playoffs.”

Watkins Mill head coach Ivan Hicks said it was the best start a Wolverines team has had during his four-year tenure.

“We were playing with intensity, we were playing with patience and we played very good defense,” Hicks said. “I was proud of that.”

While the Wolverines got off to a fast start, McRoy did not. The senior scored three points in the opening period, but responded with nine points in the second quarter, nine in the third and six in the fourth. She also grabbed 11 rebounds, giving her a double-double.

McRoy “shoots the ball well [and] she can—when she wants to—attack the basket and get off a decent shot,” Hicks said. “What I like about her as far as her offense [is concerned is] how she plays defense hard to create her offense. Jasmine gets a lot of steals on defense and with that, she gets a lot of easy baskets.”

Senior guard Jartu Toweh also played in her final regular season home game for Watkins Mill, scoring 15 points. Toweh finished the first-quarter scoring surge with a 3-pointer, followed by a nifty spin move and layup.

“She’s one of the generals on the court,” Hicks said. “Her knowledge of the game [and] how she sees the floor. She makes the team better as a whole.”

Toweh scored a transition bucket early in the second quarter, giving Watkins Mill a 25-2 lead and leading to a Rockville timeout. With a large lead, the Wolverines backed off from their full-court press and the team intensity dropped. But their lead never dipped below 22 points for the remainder of the contest.

“We always tend to get a little lead and then get comfortable,” Toweh said. “We stop talking on defense or our intensity dies down, which is something we need to work on. Against an opponent where it’s a more competitive game, it could hurt us.”

Josepha Mbouma scored nine points for Watkins Mill and Jewell Johnson added five.

Rockville fell to 5-12.

The Wolverines play at Kennedy at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The victory improved the Wolverines’ record to 11-8 with regular season road games remaining against Kennedy, Wheaton and Gaithersburg. Watkins Mill would be guaranteed a home playoff game if it earns a top-four seed. The Wolverines could also play at home depending on the outcome of random seeding for teams outside of the top four.