Largo boys capture state championship

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Largo boys capture state championship

by Terron Hampton | Staff Writer

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Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette

Largo High School team members cheer as they look over the trophy table after winning the 3A championship game against Long Reach High School 84-58 at the University of Maryland, College Park, on Saturday.

The Largo High School boys’ basketball team entered Saturday’s state Class 3A title game with a bit of a chip on its shoulder.

Prince George’s County teams claimed a clean sweep of the Class 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A South Region titles. But after Surrattsville lost the 1A crown in the first of Saturday’s championship games at Comcast Center, the county stood one loss away from being shut out of the state championship chase for the third consecutive season. Gwynn Park (2A) and Laurel (4A) lost in the state semifinals.

But Largo would not be denied.

Applying pressure on offense and defense the entire contest, Largo claimed the school’s first state championship since 1993 with an 84-58 blowout of Long Reach. The victory also gave Lions’ coach Lewis Howard his first state championship after eight years with the program and two previous state semifinal appearances.

The Lions players and coaches had a prolonged postgame celebration on the Comcast Center court that was a long time in coming. A year ago on the same floor, Bethesda-Chevy Chase handed Largo its only loss of the season in the state semifinals.

‘‘Third time is a charm and we’re bringing [a state title] back to Prince George’s County,” Howard said after the game. ‘‘We were just attacking in all facets of the game.”

Largo had four players score in double figures, led by Aaron Martin, who had big performance, scoring 17 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Senior star forward Maurice Sutton had 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks. Senior guard Klevin Pollard finished with 21 points and 5 rebounds while senior guard Darren Clark had 13 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds.

The Lions seemed to have little trouble breaking full-court pressure on offense while Largo’s front line did its job containing Long Reach’s bigger back court and forcing the Lightning into bad offensive possessions.

Largo stormed to a 43-21 lead at halftime and withstood a brief Long Reach rally in the third quarter when the lead was cut to 17 at 51-34. But a few blocks by Sutton and heady play by Pollard helped the Lions increase the lead back to 23 points, capped by a jumper by Clark, who dribbled behind his back before converting a jumper to make the score 57-34.

Long Reach would try yet another comeback in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 16 with 6:11 to go. Pollard responded with a 3-point field goal and Long Reach never posed a threat the remainder of the game.

Pollard talked about the feeling of winning the state championship after the team lost in the semifinals last season after entering the game with a perfect record.

‘‘Last year’s loss hurt because we came up short and that’s been in our hearts since,” Pollard said. ‘‘ We got here again and didn’t lose this time.”

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.