Perfect No More: Oakland Mills Falls to Gwynn Park For Second Straight Year

It was a different season, but it was the same result for the previously undefeated Oakland Mills Scorpions.

Last year, the Gwynn Park Yellow Jackets knocked the Scorpions out of the playoffs in the 2A South regional championship. And this year was no different.

The Scorpions once again found themselves on the court against Gwynn Park in the regional championship. And once again they found themselves on the losing end of a Yellow Jackets’ comeback.

Oakland Mills jumped out to an early lead, going up by as many as seven points, but Gwynn Park hung around, waiting for their opportunity.

They got it in the fourth quarter.

Oakland Mills led by three points with 1:48 remaining in the game. But the Scorpions then turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions. And the Yellow Jackets got back-to-back baskets from Jarvis Hawkins and Daniel Henry.

That helped spark an 8-1 Gwynn Park run that ended the game, knocking the Scorpions out of the playoffs for the second straight season, this time by a score of 52-48.

“They stung us again,” said Oakland Mills head coach Jon Browne, who had guided his team to 25 wins in 25 games, only to come up short in the 26th. 

The Scorpions played 30 minutes and 12 seconds worth of quality basketball. It was the other 1 minute and 48 seconds that did Oakland Mills in.

The Scorpions jumped out to an early lead, beginning the game on a 7-0 run. Though the game had just started, it appeared as if Oakland Mills was fully in control.

The Scorpions held the Yellow Jackets scoreless for the first 7 minutes and 14 seconds of the first quarter. Gwynn Park finally hit its first shot of the game, a 3-pointer from senior Brandon Ford with 45.3 seconds remaining in the quarter, to pull the Yellow Jackets within four points.

Then, with time winding down, Gwynn Park senior Tion Barnes drove the lane and hit a tough shot with 7.4 seconds to go, cutting the Scorpions’ lead to just two points.

Oakland Mills led after one quarter, 7-5.

The Scorpions’ Greg Whittington opened up the second quarter with a 3-pointer, extending Oakland Mills’ lead to five points. But Gwynn Park answered right back, hitting two consecutive 3-pointers of their own – one from Henry and the other from Ford – to take their first lead of the game, 11-10.

Ford finished the game with 18 points, while Henry racked up a game-high 22.

Most of the second quarter was a back-and-forth battle, with each team hitting one crucial shot after the other to regain control. The Scorpions got the better of it, finishing the quarter on a 5-2 run to take a small, two-point lead into halftime.

Oakland Mills led after two quarters, 21-19.

As they have done all season, the Scorpions came out on fire in the second half, starting the third quarter on a 7-0 run to give Oakland Mills its largest lead of the night – seven points.

But Gwynn Park did not panic.

“If we look up at the clock in the third quarter and the game is close, we got this game,” Barnes said. “We have been down a lot this season, and being down is just like being up to us. So we just going to play like we up.”

The Yellow Jackets proceeded to go on a 5-0 run to pull within a single bucket of the Scorpions. Then Oakland Mills’ Joe Kiely hit a clutch 3-pointer, and Whittington hit a pair of free throws, and once again the Scorpions’ lead was at seven points.

Kiely ended the night with 17 points and Whittington chipped in a team-high 19.

But just like they had done in the first quarter, Gwynn Park ended the quarter strong, finishing the third on a 7-3 run to pull within two points of the Scorpions.

Oakland Mills clung to a 38-36 lead entering the game’s final eight minutes.

Whittington started the fourth quarter with an emphatic dunk to put the Scorpions up by four.

The game was still well in reach for Gwynn Park.

The Yellow Jackets went on an 8-0 run, all of those points coming on free throws, to take a four-point lead of their own, 44-40.

The Scorpions were on their heels. They did not give up, though.

Kiely and Whittington each hit crucial 3-pointers during an Oakland Mills 7-0 run, and like that the Scorpions had retaken the lead, 47-44, with 1:48 remaining in the game.

Then everything began to go wrong for Oakland Mills.

“Crunch time came, and we didn’t respond well,” Browne said. “We got sloppy with the ball.”

The Scorpions turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions. The final turnover came with 24.2 seconds left in the game, when the Scorpions were down by just two points, 50-48.

Whittington was stripped of the ball, and the Yellow Jackets capitalized, making a pair of free throws and capping the 8-1 run that sealed the victory.

“At the end of the day,” Browne said, “Gwynn Park played better than us.” 

Gwynn Park (52):

Henry 22, Ford 18, Barnes 6, Nick Walton 3, Hawkins 3

Oakland Mills (48):

Whittington 19, Kiely 17, Kerry Bethea 6, James Peters 4, Marcellus Ajiboye 2