Watkins Mill Powers Through to Semifinals

With a little more than six minutes left in Watkins Mill’s quarterfinal matchup at Blake on Tuesday night, Coach Ivan Hicks pulled his top scorers Jasmine McRoy and Jartu Toweh over to the sideline.

Watkins Mill was holding a nine-point lead in the hotly contested game against a Bengals squad that had been fighting back against the Wolverines’ lead all night.

“Take it over,” the coach told his star seniors. “It’s ours.”

And take it over they did, each scoring four points in the games closing minutes to fend off any hopes of a Blake comeback and post an impressive 53-44 win—Watkins Mill’s first quarterfinal win in either of the seniors’ hard-court careers.

Toweh led the Lady ‘Rines with 20, McRoy had 17 and Josepha Mbouma pitched in 14 crucial points—the most balanced scoring from Watkins Mill’s scoring trio all season.

After a lackluster first-round win over Northwood on Friday night, the team was determined to come out and play with playoff-level intensity. The result: Watkins Mill's first trip to the semifinals in years—and the sweetest moment of McRoy’s athletic career.

“We’ve been on this streak for a long time, so we just wanted to do this for Watkins Mill,” she said. “It feels good. It feels real good.”

Defense keyed the win, as Watkins Mill forced one turnover after another with a swarming defense that left Blake shell-shocked in the first half. The Bengals held an early 5-4 lead but Watkins Mill countered with an 11-1 run and never looked back.

Every time Blake started to make a push, the Wolverines had an answer—usually in the form of a steal capped off with a slashing drive from McRoy, Toweh or Mbouma.

“We never gave up, we kept pushing, kept talking, and I feel like our defense was why we won this game,” Toweh said.

That defense will be put to a much tougher test Thursday night against high-powered Frederick. But if Watkins Mill continues to play at the level they showed Tuesday night, Hicks thinks the undermanned Wolverines have more than a fighting chance against a Cadets squad that boasts three players who average more than 16 points per game.

“They score a lot of points. They run. They’ve had a great season. It’s going to be a very competitive game,” Hicks said. “It will be somewhat of a track meet in the beginning, and it’s going to be exciting. I can’t wait until Thursday night.”

WATKINS MILL: 53 points

Jartu Toweh 20

Jasmine McRoy 17

Josepha Mbouma 14

Jewell Johnson 2

JAMES HUBERT BLAKE: 44 points

Nikki Ostrow 15

Reanna Beatty 10

Asha Henley 8

Andrea Archila 5

Danielle Snowden 3

Jasmine Walker 3