City's Omarr Smith (left) and Jordan Rowlett pressure Sherwood's Jamar Nix. [AMINA HELTON]
COLLEGE PARK, MD – The 2024-25 high school basketball season officially came to a close on Saturday with the final four games of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association State Championships at the University of Maryland’s XFinity Center.
Here’s a look at Friday and Saturday’s championship action:
3A BOYS: CITY 70, SHERWOOD 61
City withstood a monster second-quarter run by Sherwood and turned up its defensive pressure to rally from 18 points down to pick up its second state title in three years and fifth in school history.
New Mexico State-bound star senior guard Omarr Smith, Jr. finished with 20 points to lead the Knights, while Jordan Hammond added 15, Marquel Paschall 10, Jordan Rowlett 9, and Jaden Hargrove and Camari Stewart 8 apiece.
City grabbed 16-11 after one quarter, but Sherwood seized the momentum in the second, going on a 23-0 run to go up 34-16.
City's first points of the second quarter came on Hammond free throws with 1:17 to go in the half to end the run. The Knight finished the quarter on a 7-0 flurry to cut Sherwood’s lead to 37-23 at halftime.
“One of those lessons that we learned throughout the season is to fight,” Knights coach Omar Smith, Sr. said. “We had nothing else left to do. We preached ‘32 minutes’ since we realized we were in the championship game, so I just told them we need to get back out there and fight. I think we went on a 7-0 run rather quickly, and I think they believe we could win after that. After that it was just a matter of settling down, taking one possession at a time - I thought we got a couple of steals and we rushed into it. Once we settled down, I knew we were good.”
The Knights chipped away behind their pressure defense, and regained the lead in the fourth quarter on a pair of Hammond free throws to make it 49-47 with 7:48 to play.
“Something we’ve been doing really well all playoffs is defending,” Hammond said. “That was probably the most somebody’s scored on us in the first half in a long time, so we knew in the second half we just had to buckle down and play defense and we knew we had to win the game.”
Sherwood tied the game but could never regain control in their first state title game appearance since 2007. They reached the final despite losing all five starters from last year’s team.
“It's a credit to their team and their stamina,” Warriors coach Tom Sheahin said of City. “They pressed us with a 2-2-1. Some passes were a little high, we weren’t in the right position - I don’t know if the court played a big difference, but it just seemed like we got a little tired and winded and were not making the correct passes or being in the right position and the right angle to break that press.”
Khalil Wilson finished with 17 points to lead Sherwood, while Jamar Nix had 14 and Tyler Gramling 8.
“They made a lot of shots in the second quarter, but we stuck together,” Omarr Smith Jr. said. “We knew we were never too far out of the game. As long as we played the right way and played our game like we did in the second half, we knew we were going to be able to come out with a win.”
For the Smith family, Saturday's win marked a successful close to their time together at City. The younger Smith transferred in from Archbishop Curley two years ago to join his father.
“It means everything,” Smith, Jr. said. “[Winning a state championship] is what I came here to do, and it means everything to me. Winning a state championship with your parent as a coach, not a lot of people get to do that, so I’m not taking it for granted.”
2025 MPSSAA CHAMPIONS
BOYS
4A: Laurel (Prince George’s County)
3A: City (Baltimore City)
2A: Largo (Prince George’s County)
1A: Cambridge-South Dorchester (Dorchester County)
GIRLS
4A:North Point (Charles County)
3A: South River (Anne Arundel County)
2A: Francis Scott Key (Carroll County)
1A: Pikesville (Baltimore County)
Largo coach Eric Hines embraces Christian Brown. [AMINA HELTON]
The 2025 Maryland 4A Champion Laurel Spartans.
4A BOYS: LAUREL 68, WHITMAN 53
Apart from the opening minutes, Saturday’s contest provided a game-long coronation from the Spartans, who grabbed an early lead and never looked back en route to their first state title since 1980.
Amadou Kaloga had a game-high 24 points for Laurel, while Jermaine Taylor had 16 and Christian Brown 15.
“Winning this game, it meant a lot to us,” Brown said, “’cause we’ve wanted this since we were freshmen. We fell short freshman year, took another stop our sophomore year and junior year, and we just kept taking another step and this year we made it happen.”
Whitman - which finished as state runner-up last year - jumped ahead by 8 points in the first quarter. That early energy may have fired up the Spartans, however.
“Honestly, when people start talking to us during the game it really gets us going,” Taylor said. “So once you start talking to us, it's over - it’s just blood in the water so you’ve got to attack your prey. So yeah, we don’t like when people think they’re, like, better than us, because we know we’re the best team on the floor so you’ve just got to go out there and take what’s ours.”
Laurel surged back to take an 18-14 lead after one quarter, and outscored Whitman 26-8 in the second to blow the game open.
In his second year as coach, Laurel’s Eric Hines has now led the Spartans to two regional titles and a state championship. He credited his players and the Laurel community for buying in.
“Without a vision, you perish,” Hines said. “There was a vision that was set, and we communicated that vision to these guys and they said, ‘Yep, that’s what we want to do.’ And as a collective, that’s what we went for.”
Whitman was coming off a semifinal win against a much-bigger CH Flowers team, and while they said the Spartans had similar size, their pace presented a different type of problem.
“I think their pace was significantly faster up and down the court than Flowers was,” Vikings coach Chris Lun said. “We knew transition was going to be something we couldn't get killed in tonight and for the most part we did a decent job; they just moved a lot faster.”
Hayden Walsh finished with 17 points to lead Whitman. Titian DeRosa added 7 and 5 rebounds.
“We got off to a good start,” Lun said. “First off, credit to Laurel, they really played a good game and they absolutely deserved to win. The second quarter got away from us a little bit - I think it was 26-8. One of our big strengths is how well we shoot the ball, and our percentage tonight obviously wasn’t very good. I think we shot 22 percent in the first half, which makes it tough to win. But Laurel’s big, they’re quick - they’re the No. 1 seed for a reason and they deserve it.”
Whitman's Titian DeRosa brings the ball up against Laurel. [AMINA HELTON]
4A GIRLS: NORTH POINT 61, WESTERN 30
North Point took a 17-10 lead into the halftime break but blew things open in the third quarter, outscoring Western 29-13 en route to a commanding title victory. It is the Eagles’ first state title since 2013.
Dottie Eamon had 16 points to lead the Eagles, while Mya Grant had 12 and Layla Woodward added 10.
Jaden Hunt led Western with 7 points, while Taliyah Bailey and Paris Knight had 6 apiece.
3A GIRLS: SOUTH RIVER 56, OAKLAND MILLS 45
The Seahakws pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Scorpions 21-5 down the stretch to seal the victory.
Kiera West went to 22 points and 10 rebounds for South River while Cami Burke and Raegen Ogle each finished with 8. Chloe Grenway led Oakland Mills with 12 and Destiny Macharia added 10 points and 6 assists.
2A BOYS: LARGO 50, NEW TOWN 48
New Town got a clean look at a potential game-winning 3-pointer as time expired but couldn’t convert as Largo repeated and avenged their title game loss to the Titans in 2023.
“Everybody was saying it was going to be Largo-New Town [in the final],” Largo coach Rodney Ward said, “and we won [our semifinal game] in overtime and they won in double overtime. It’s just about being healthy and having a good team, and a little bit of luck as well when it comes down to this. So having to play those guys made it even sweeter because two years ago we were here. But I think that loss - and the lessons from that loss - is actually what sparked us to win the last two championships.”
Michigan State-bound star guard Cam Ward had 20 points and 9 rebounds to lead the Lions, while Ayden Ashe had 10 points. Jalen Johnson and Jared Mobley added 7 apiece.
Ward - who set the Maryland public school scoring record earlier this month - finishes his stellar prep career with 2,716 points.
Justus Stanton had 13 points to lead New Town, and Christion Herbert-Brown had 9.
2A GIRLS: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 44, HEREFORD 39
After falling into an early hole, FSK rallied - outscoring Hereford 25-13 across the second and third quarters - to avenge their championship loss from a year ago.
Summer Brooks had 14 points and Caroline Kohr 13 to lead FSK.
Anna Orner had 13 points and Megan Hess 10 to lead Hereford.
1A BOYS: CAMBRIDGE SOUTH DORCHESTER 36, SEED 33 (OT)
Sterling Perkins hit the game-winner with less than a second remaining in overtime to lead the Vikings to a thrilling victory.
Koby Ennals led C-SD with 16 points, while Perkins finished with 13.
Tyler Dubose led the Sabers with 9 points while Omar Williams and Malachi Parrot each had 7.
1A GIRLS: PIKESVILLE 67, SOUTHERN-GARRETT 62
Mariah Jones-Bey had 21 points, NyJae Malik-El 19, Ka’nai Pyat 11 and Maya Chase 10 as the Panthers edged Southern for the 1A crown - their fifth consecutive title.
Kelsey Ward had 12 points to lead Southern and Jocelyn Ward finished with 10 and 6 rebounds.
