KINGS MILLS — Trailing 39-28 with 4:34 left in the final quarter, Wilmington clawed back to within a possession of tying or taking the lead twice in the final minute, but fell to Kings 48-42 in the season opener for both squads.
Kings built that lead by scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter.
Jasmine Jamiel’s three, Wilmington’s first field goal of the second half, and a Sami McCord deuce in the next 20 seconds ignited the comeback.
The teams traded buckets until Karlie Morgan scored on consecutive possessions to pull Wilmington to within 43-41 with just less than a minute left.
Both teams then traded trips to the charity stripe. With the score 45-42 with 46.1 seconds left, Kings missed the front end of a one-and-one. Wilmington got the rebound but Kings came up with a quick steal.
Kings got another free throw and converted another steal for a layup to seal the victory.
“I saw inexperience on our part. I saw us not finishing possessions on the offensive end. I don’t know how many layups we missed, but it was probably double digits,” WHS head coach Zach Williams said. “We’re young and not as big as Kings. That wore us down a little bit.”
Seniors Jamiel and Morgan led Wilmington with 11 points. Classmate McCord chipped in with 10. Freshmen Katie Murphy and Sophie Huffman rounded out the scoring with six and four points, respectively.
“I thought my three seniors, being in some different situations, made some great plays tonight and stepped up. I felt like the younger girls who haven’t had experience stepped up. They got their first good taste of varsity experience,” Williams said. “We just need a little more of that all around. Seniors just need to take control of situations and be more vocal on the floor and help the younger ones out when things start getting a little haywire.”
The game was close early on with four ties and five lead changes in the first half. Wilmington led by as much as 25-18 after a 12-4 spurt. Kings rattled off 10 of the next 12 points to take a 28-27 advantage into the break.
SUMMARY
Nov 22, 2019
@Kings High School
Kings 48 Wilmington 42
W^13^14^1^14^^42
K^12^16^4^16^^48
(42) WILMINGTON (fg-ft-tp) Jamiel 3-3-11, Sami McCord 3-4-10, Huffman 2-0-4, Murphy 1-4-6, Morgan 4-2-11, Robinson 0-0-0, Diels 0-0-0, Moore 0-0-0, Drake 0-0-0. Total 13-13-42. 3-point goals: 3 (Jamiel 2, Morgan). FTM-FTA 13-21, 62 percent.
(48) KINGS (fg-ft-tp) Rawlings 2-4-8, Ingram 2-0-4, Schmidt 4-0-8, Clark 3-1-8, S. Bush 3-1-7, Barnett 2-0-5, Wells 2-0-4, Crook 0-0-0, Erwin 0-0-0. Total 18-9-48. 3-point goals: 3 (S. Bush, Barnett, Clark). FTM-FTA 9-18, 50 percent.
