Randallstown looks to be Ram tough

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Tears flowed down the cheeks of Randallstown’s Kelsie Singleton and the rest of her teammates after failing to win their first Baltimore County title with a 65-49 loss to Catonsville on Tuesday.

The Rams headed to the locker room after watching the victorious Comets revel with the championship trophy, yet as Randallstown’s players boarded the bus, their sadness transformed to optimism.

“This isn’t the end, we still have a chance to come back and win,” Singleton, who scored 22 points against Catonsville, said. “At first, we were a little shaky and no one thought we would make it this far, but we kept progressing and getting better.”

The Rams have one more opportunity to prove how much they’ve improved as the third seed in the 2A North Region Tournament, which they begin on Monday by hosting sixth-seeded Lansdowne or 11th-seeded Douglass.

The diminutive, 5-foot-2 guard has been huge for the Rams, leading the team in scoring (16.1) and assists (5.1) per game. She’s played a major role in Randallstown (13-6) finishing 10-1 in the Baltimore County 2A/1A Division, clinching the team a spot in the county title game — not bad for a team that went 7-8 two years ago.

Last year, the Rams improved to 13-5, but had nothing to show for their turnaround. This winter started poorly for the Rams, who opened 1-4 before turning their season around to earn one of five, first-round byes in the 11-team field that is headlined by top-seeded City.

Randallstown coach Ellen Fitzkee knows her players must have short memories for her team to advance.

“We are young and this experience can only help us when we go into states,” Fitzkee, in her second year, said. “The girls have not had this tradition. You lost, but there are a lot of good things you can learn from this, and hopefully in practice we can improve on those and take a step forward in regionals.”

The Rams are one of the area’s youngest teams, starting three junior guards and two freshmen forwards. Aside from Singleton, juniors T’Arra Cutting ( 11 ppg, 10 rpg) and Imani Graham (8.9 ppg, 6 rpg) have powered the team toward its goal of winning the school’s first state title in girl’s basketball.

Known for its highly successful boy’s basketball team, Randallstown has won a state championship each of the past three years and is going for its sixth overall this season. If the boy’s team advances to the state tournament, it would make its 11th appearance in the past 14 years.

The success of the girl’s team is significantly shorter, as it has reached the state semifinals just once, in 1994. But the drive for a banner of their own is something the Rams talk about everyday.

“We don’t drop our heads for anything,” Cutting said. “We are one right now. We want our banner on the wall, that says ‘Lady Rams, State Champions.’”

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com

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