With most of Southern Maryland looking to come in from the cold and windy conditions outside, Chopticon High School was the host for Day One of The Southern Maryland Holiday Basketball Tournament. The Leonardtown Lady Raiders started the afternoon by gaining their first victory of the young season 39-28 over Great Mills. After an evenly played first quarter, the Lady Raiders began to take control, with a smothering defense that made it tough for the Lady Hornets to get off any clean shots.

Leonardtown was led by Co-Papa John’s Players of the Game Madison Pachner (11 points) and Kate Finkelston (15 points) Great Mills leading scorers were Bria Jones and TaQuana Gordon with seven points each.

Host Chopticon’s Girls team brought impressive team hustle led by freshman point guard Ty Priest (15 points and 12 assists) in their 49-39 win over La Plata. Abreeleen Brown and Kirsten Norris worked hard under the boards and added nine points each for the Lady Braves. La Plata’s offense was run very well by point guard Emily Guare’s 13 points.

La Plata will play the opening game today against Great Mills (2 p.m.) and Leonardtown will play Chopticon for the Girls Championship at around 5 p.m.
 
Great Mills opened boys play with a dominating 76-47 win over Leonardtown. The Hornets jumped out to a 11-2 lead and never looked back with Earl Castain (12 points) running the point for Coach Frank Peck In the second half, Papa John’s Player Of The Game Deandre Wilkerson took charge going six for six from the field and six for six from the free throw line (18 points) including a big dunk that fired up the crowd. Leonardtown was led by Marcus Robinson’s 10 points.

In a much closer game, Walter Johnson (Bethesda, MD) beat Chopticon 51-42. Chopticon led at halftime 17-16 with both teams playing a very slow paced game. The Wildcats took charge in the second half behind Halid Hamidi’s 19 points. Ryan Lynch added 13 points for Walter Johnson. Chopticon’s leading scorers were Deangelo Bannister with 12 points and Rashaud Dent with 10 points

Chopticon and Leonardtown will face off in the consolation game scheduled for 3:30 p.m., Dec. 29

Walter Johnson matches up with Great Mills at about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 29 for the Boys Tournament Championship.
 
All games will be broadcast live on Baynet Radio beginning at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 29.