March Madness came a little early for Baltimore on Tuesday night.
Two high school basketball teams, the No. 2 Dunbar Poets and the No. 5 Edmonson Red Storm, battled on the court at Morgan’s Hill Field House for the Baltimore City title.
When both teams met previously, Dunbar was able to grab a double overtime win. This apparently left a bad taste in the mouth of Isaiah Tripp, the Edmondson guard who led all scorers with a tremendous 35 points.
The Morgan gymnasium was filled with parents, scouts, students and people from the community. This game was for the bragging rights of the city, and both teams definitely came to play.
Edmondson took an early 16-15 lead in the first quarter, but that wasn’t going to be enough to hold off the defending city champions. With Dunbar taking a 33-27 lead after the first half, it was still anyone’s game.
After half time, the Red Storm began to build some momentum and catch up to Dunbar. By the end of the third quarter the score was 47-46, with Dunbar up by one. But in the fourth quarter Edmondson was able to take the lead with 1:04 left in the game.
The city title was right in their hands, but Dunbar’s guard Kamau Stokes had other plans.
Edmondson held a semi-comfortable 63-58 lead, but with just under one minute left, Stokes hit a 3-pointer. Seconds later, he came up with the steal to tie the game at 63-63. The Red Storm had a chance to end the game with a basket, but failed to do so, leading the teams into overtime.
The game began to look like a repeat of the last time these two teams met.
During overtime, the Red Storm looked to stop the repeat from happening, as they took a 73-70 lead with under one minute left to play. But Daxter Miles, Dunbar’s star player and leading scorer, wasn’t ready to give up that defending champion title just yet. With 41 seconds left, Miles was fouled and hit one free throw to cut the lead to 73-71. With the ball inbounded, the Red Storm threw away the pass and gave the Poets a chance to tie it again.
But this time it wasn’t a drive by Stokes; it was a top of the key 3-pointer by Miles to give the Poets a 74-73 lead with nine seconds left.
The Red Storm had one more chance to extend the game.
Myrek Lee-Fowlkes tried to hit a 3-pointer for the Red Storm but missed, and the team was unable to get the rebound as time ran out.
Miles, who led his team in scoring, ended the night with 24 points. “This is what you play for,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “When the game is on the line, I want to take the last shot — everybody does — and when you hit it, it’s an even better feeling.”
The Poets had once again defeated the Red Storm and won their second straight Division I championship title.
