Joey Dorsey had a six-week wait before he could come to a game and play for the North Hagerstown basketball team.
And even after that long wait, the Hubs senior had to wait another three quarters before the game came to him.
Dorsey, North’s powerful guard, showed some rust in his first action since Jan. 8 on Friday against Boonsboro. But suddenly everything clicked back into place in the fourth quarter when he took charge with 18 of his team-high 25 points in the final 12 minutes to spark the Hubs’ comeback in a 79-74 overtime victory over the feisty Warriors.
He scored 14 in the fourth quarter and added four in overtime. But maybe even bigger was his defense and passing in the extra period.
“In the first half, I was just trying to force it. I didn’t let the game come to me,” said Dorsey, in his return from a broken foot. “In the fourth quarter, I slowed down. My teammates trust me. The game came to me and once I get going, it’s hard to stop.”
Dorsey looked a mechanical the first three quarters. He forced his presence and may have been his own worst enemy.
“It’s good for him to be back. But he’s like a kid at a candy shop right now,” said North coach Nate Naylor. “He’s been very hyper for the last couple days, so, it’s good to just get him on the court and for him to get this first game out the way.
“In the beginning, he was trying to feel things out again after being out. In the second half, he settled in a little bit and started going back to being Joey.”
It all changed in the fourth quarter.
With Boonsboro leading 50-44 with under seven minutes remaining, Dorsey buried a three-pointer out of the left corner to recalibrate himself. He scored nine points in a two-minute span to force Boonsboro to call a timeout at the 4:35 mark to preserve a 55-53 lead.
“It was just knowing when to attack and when not to attack,” he said. “I was forcing a lot of threes in the first half. I had to get downhill and not force a lot of threes.
“I think it was just having my team stress for me to let the game come to me and everything just clicked overall. Because once I see that first basket go in, then it’s all rhythm after that.”
Boonsboro maintained the lead and pushed it out to 68-63 with :48 remaining behind two drives by Carter Jackson.
North’s Michael Bell answered with a three-pointer with :40 left and Dorsey hit a tough layup on an inside move with :15 left to tie the game at 68. Boonsboro’s Harry Wells bounced a shot off the rim as time ran out to send the game into overtime.
Dorsey kicked off the overtime hitting a 3, again out of the left corner, to put North up 71-68 with 3:26 remaining, a lead the Hubs would keep.
Boonsboro got within one point on a layup by Ishola Badaki and then again after a Dorsey foul shot on an Elijah Weddle’s free throw to make it 72-71 with 1:08 remaining.
Dorsey delivered two passes – one for a Bell three-pointer out of the right corner at the :49 mark and the other for a Brayden Cespedes layup with :18 remaining – for a 77-71 lead that all but ended the game.
“He has a will. He (doesn’t) like to lose,” Naylor said. “He has a will to win. Once the game got in those last two minutes, if we don’t make plays, we lose. Now everything gets heightened a little bit and (Dorsey’s) getting to the rim and he’s finishing these crazy layups that he can finish.
“We talk about his scoring, but he found Bell twice on threes. He was looking for him. He’s putting people in positions. He does a good job with that. He told me to trust him to make the right play. So, I will trust him to make the right play.”
Boonsboro gave North everything it could handle for the first three quarters.
The Warriors battled back from an early six-point deficit to take a 14-11 lead on a Jackson 3 and three layups by Weddle, leading to an 18-16 lead after one quarter.
Boonsboro held a 28-24 lead in the second quarter before North closed the half with a 7-0 run of a 31-28 at the intermission. Ja Ron Nicholson scored five of the points and Dorsey scored on a scoop layup with one second left to get the advantage.
Boonsboro regained the lead and lost it until Tristan Mullins hit a pair of free throws give the Warriors a 45-44 edge after three quarters.
“Boonsboro gives us problems because of all of their size,” Naylor said. “With their size they can put all those bigs inside and take the paint away from us. They do a really good job. Sometimes it’s about matchups and I think Boonsboro is a bad matchup for us.”
Jackson topped the Warriors and led all scorers with 28 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, but he was scoreless in overtime. The 6-foot-4 Wells bothered the Hubs and added 18 points.
Dorsey added five rebounds, five assists and two steals to his stat sheet. Cespedes finished with 19 points, while Nicholson added 14 with a team-high seven rebounds. TyQwell Fauntleroy played the role of unsung hero with 12 points and gritty floor play with five rebounds and three important steals.
“Collectively, we focused and got locked in defensively. I thought Brock (Lapole) stepped up and played better in the last four minutes defensively,” Naylor said. “Ty came in and gave us some energy and made some big plays in that last 10 minutes. Ja Ron did some good things. Everyone on the floor kind of played well.”
With Dorsey back, the Hubs are whole again and looking a little more like the team that started the season at 6-0. It all happens just in time for the start of the Class 3A playoffs next week.
“I just want to give thanks my teammates, first and foremost,” Dorsey said. “They trust me no matter what, even when I’m down. I love those guys.
“When I went down, the energy of the team went down. But now, I think we can make a big playoff run. All those teams in Frederick County and all those 3A teams, we lost to them the second time around. We beat them all the first time. So, we are coming to get them in the playoffs, for sure.”
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