Raiders carry winner’s tag well

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Atholton coach Maureen Shacreaw had the perfect cure for any hangover following her team’s 47-44 loss at fourth-ranked Mount Hebron in the Howard County championship game on Feb. 27: laser tag.

“I knew we had to great chance to get to the county championship game,” Shacreaw said. “I wanted to do something, win or lose. With these girls, it might as well have been conditioning because they are so competitive.”

But the defending 2A state champion and 10th-ranked Raiders (19-5), who moved up to the 3A classification this year, still needed the first 10 minutes of their East Region quarterfinal against Wilde Lake to regain their form. Trailing 20-18 at home early in the second quarter, Shacreaw called a timeout and challenged her team.

The response? An 18-4 run to end the half and put the game out of reach, propelling the team to a 71-46 win. The Raiders look to maintain their momentum in the semifinals tonight at 7 against visiting Centennial (14-9). But, Shacreaw’s timeout is yet another example of a team still learning to play up to its lofty expectations.

There is a big difference, however, in this year’s team and last year’s team: the graduation of guard Julie Taylor, who finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,450 career points. And senior forward Taylor Chapman said the team noticed the change from the start.

“The first day of practice we were throwing the ball all over the place, trying to figure out where we were supposed to be,” she said. “But now everyone knows their places and what we are supposed to do.”

Without Taylor, the Raiders have relied on Chapman (12 ppg, 12 rpg) and Elie Snyder (19 ppg) to power the team’s offense. The duo are just two of five seniors, including Brittany Coughlan, Julianne Conroy and Lori Toler, who make up the core of the Raiders. Against Wilde Lake, Snyder (27 points), Chapman (22), Coughlan (13), Conroy (3) and Toler (2) combined for 67 of their team’s 71 points.

But this season has had its struggles.

“It’s been really hard to keep our level up there,” said Snyder, a 5-foot-7 forward. “Everyone is gunning for us and it’s hard. We know we have to put our whole hearts into it.”

Atholton started 8-0, but lost back-to-back games by a combined nine points on Dec. 28 and 29 at the Cardinal Classic in central Pennsylvania. The Raiders responded with wins against Oakland Mills and River Hill, but suffered their worst loss of the season, 48-28, at Mount Hebron on Jan. 11. Atholton rebounded to win 10 straight, but then lost, 51-34 at River Hill on Feb. 14, before coming back to beat Hammond prior to the loss in the county title game.

“It’s a long season and we have had some ups and downs,” Shacreaw said. “The expectations have been so high and they set the expectations that high. The first day of practice I asked them ‘when do they want the season to end?’ [Chapman] said point blank, ‘the last day of the season, March 15.’”

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com

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