No. 5 Edmondson boys basketball rallies past No. 6 C. Milton Wright, 62-46, behind Chase Foster’s dazzling second half
After watching his Edmondson boys basketball team play its worst half of the season Saturday against C. Milton Wright, coach Darnell Dantzler expressed his disappointment in a loud tone throughout the break.
Chase Foster took the message to heart. And then the 6-foot-10 sophomore forward made the second half his very own.
Limited to one made free throw in the first half, Foster poured in 25 second-half points as the No. 5 Red Storm astonishingly turned a 17-point deficit into a comfortable 62-46 win over the No. 6 Mustangs at the 26th BCPS Basketball Academy at Dunbar.
Hitting 3-pointers from the outside and attacking the basket with thunderous dunks in the second half of his 26-point performance, Foster’s play proved a microcosm of the entire game. Edmondson improved to 10-2, while C. Milton Wright, which got 26 points from senior forward Dylan Sander, fell to 8-2.
“At halftime, Coach got into me and told me to just go out there and play hard,” Foster said. “I feel like I’m a key part of this team and me not coming out and playing well in the first half kind of changed everything. So in the second half, I just went out and did the best I could.”
The best he could proved more than enough to help the Red Storm streak past the Mustangs, who had their biggest lead at 39-22 with 5:33 to play in the third quarter.
With help from senior Josiah Brown, who finished with 13 points, the Red Storm started their rally. The two combined to score 15 points in the rest of the third quarter. When Foster went high above the rim from the right side for a stirring dunk with six seconds left in the frame, the Red Storm had a clean slate with the game tied at 40.
In the fourth, Foster converted a three-point play to give Edmondson a 43-40 lead on its opening possession, then nailed a 3-pointer and hit another basket to make it 48-40. He finished with 15 points in the fourth quarter, while the Mustangs were only able to muster two baskets in the final eight minutes.
“It felt good. I don’t know, words just can’t explain it,” he said. “Something just came into me and provided a spark and made me play better in the second half.”
After the Mustangs dominated the second quarter behind Sander’s inside play and hot outside shooting from Cayne Woodland (16 points) to take a 31-17 halftime lead, the Red Storm made adjustments. Going to an aggressive man-to-man defense and making an assertive effort to get the ball to Foster proved beneficial.
For the Mustangs, the frustrating third quarter included key starter Kyle Ashman fouling out. But the disappointing ending didn’t diminish the valuable experience they gained.
“We got away from playing around brand of basketball, but hats off to them. They really enforced their will in the second half,” C. Milton Wright coach Mario Scott said.
“I told the guys before the game, bigger than the wins and losses is having a chance to play on the floor where legends played — [Dunbar great] Muggsy Bogues and those kind of guys — is an experience that we want to give our guys. We came to play the best to see where we are. Today, in the second half, we got away from what we were doing, but I’m really encouraged that we showed when we play our brand of basketball we can play with any team in the state.”
Both teams return Tuesday with important league matchups. Edmondson heads back to Baltimore City play when it hosts rival and No. 15 Lake Clifton at 5:15 p.m., while first place will be on the line in Harford County when C. Milton Wright travels to Patterson Mill with opening tip at 6:45 p.m.
CMW — Woodland 16, Thompson 4, Sander 26. Totals: 18 5-9 46
E — Dantzler Jr. 7, Foster 26, Brown 13, M. Davis 2, Sherrod 8, X. Davis 5, Cole 1. Totals: 24 9-18 62
Halftime: CMW, 31-17