HAGERSTOWN – The Smithburg girls basketball team introduced the elephant in the room on Tuesday.
Teams have marveled over the Leopards’ offensive juggernaut, which have routinely disposed of opponents by huge margins throughout its entire undefeated season.
But on Tuesday, Smithsburg put a little something else on display. It was always there but overlooked.
The Leopards can play defense.
Smithsburg stole a page for Williamsport – long renowned for its ability to play strong defense – by virtually shutting down the Wildcats for the first 11-plus minutes enroute to a 66-30 win to win the Central Maryland Conference Small School Championship at North Hagerstown. The game featured the top Class 1A team (Smithsburg) against the top Class 2A team (Williamsport) in the CMC for the championship.
“Offensively, they’re really good,” Smithburg coach Todd Bono said of his team. “I was super proud of their defense.
“That’s what I told them. I called a timeout and said, ‘I don’t care if we score any points. We played the other day against Allegany and it was 7-4 in the first quarter. If you do that for four quarters, you’re going to win.’”
To be honest, the way the Leopards score, it’s kind of easy to overlook the defense. It’s much different from the Hoover Dam-style Williamsport has played under coach Kevin Murphy. The Wildcats have walled off opponents to keep the real estate under the basket dry for years.
But Smithsburg found a crack in the dam.
Williamsport opened the game, applying their sticky trademark, holding Smithsburg to a 4-4 tie with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter. The Wildcats slowed the Leopards’ offense, trying to shorten and tighten the game.
Smithsburg did the next best thing. It played a three-quarter court press and transition defense to take Williamsport totally out of the game.
In essence, the Leopards’ best defense was not allowing the Wildcats to play defense.
The Leopards broke the 4-4 tie with a 25-0 run over an eight-minute, 12-second span over the first two quarters.
Skyla Mastronardi and Claire Bono spearheaded the scoring onslaught, combining for 22 of those 25 points to put Smithsburg ahead by a 29-4 count. The Leopards led 24-4 after one quarter.
Williamsport’s offense was four Rileigh Cole free throws in the first quarter. The Wildcats didn’t get their first bucket until Abbigail Bockstanz scored a layup with 4:12 remaining in the half.
Smithsburg’s flash flood of points ended Williamsport’s early work when it controlled the tempo for the first four minutes of the game. But there was one problem.
“I thought in the first quarter, we did a really good shots, but just didn’t score,” Murphy said. “We did a great job on defense. We kept them in the half court.
“The thing about Smithsburg is, when you play them, you can’t give them live alternatives. You can’t give them transition, because they are 10 out of a 10 as a total team. They’re going score every time.”
Smithsburg’s started defending shots and knocking the ball free in the Wildcats’ backcourt to start a tidal wave of offense.
The Leopards led by as many as 28 with Mastronardi scoring 20 of her game-high 24 in the first half. Smithsburg led 36-13 at the half.
“It’s just our ability to not panic when we don’t connect on our first couple shots,” Todd Bono said. “It’s great. It’s important. They’re confident scorers and shooters, so they know, and have the mindset that the next shot is going to go in.
“Sometimes, we get so locked in because people say, ‘You won by 30,’ or ‘You can’t believe everything you see in the newspaper.’ We can’t get caught up in how much we win by. We were just trying to win every quarter by five points, and that’s good enough.”
The game was played just days before the Maryland state tournament starts, which makes this game a battle to win while not losing players for the postseason. The early scoring allowed both teams to substitute liberally.
Smithsburg pushed the envelope by shooting 50% for the game, while registering 19 assists, 12 steals and six blocked shots in the game. It all made up for Williamsport limiting the Leopards to just seven offensive rebounds.
“(Smithsburg) started getting some transition buckets, and then, they started hitting shots. … They hit some tough shots,” Murphy said. “They have five kids who can score at will and then they’re very unselfish. They make the next pass. They make the extra pass.
“I went to my bench really early. This game – and I don’t mean to be mean – but once that game got to that score in the first half, I was like, ‘Ok. I’m just going sit our starters, and just play it out. Next week is the important thing.”
Smithsburg moved to a 60-24 lead on Niriah Arthur’s basket with 1:35 remaining in the third quarter to ignite the running clock rule (when deficits reach 35 points) for the rest of the game.
Mastronardi hist 10 of 14 shots, including three 3-pointers, and added six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Claire Bono accounted for 18 points and five rebounds while matching Mastronardi’s assists and steal numbers.
