Waldorf, MD – In front of a packed gymnasium, Jalen Gibbs put on a show. Coming into the night, Gibbs averaged 29.5 points per game through the Eagles first two games. Friday night, Dec. 9 he only beat that margin by 7 points, scoring 36 points in his team’s 97-68 victory over the visiting Gwynn Park Yellow Jackets. Gibbs achieved a rare milestone in the state of Maryland tonight as the four-year varsity player scored his 1,000 career point with just over a minute left in the game. But how did we get there?
To start the game, North Point took advantage of several Gwynn Park mistakes, scoring their first two baskets on fast break layups by sophomore guard Malik Lawrence. Their lead expanded when Gibbs made his first three shots of the game, two three point balls, and a layup plus the free throw due to him being fouled on the layup. Before Gwynn Park could blink, two minutes had gone by, and they found themselves down 13-0. They put up a bit of a fight and clawed to get the lead to 11 to end the quarter trailing 23-12. The ending of the first quarter was fast paced and full of action as within the last 20 seconds, there were four blocked shots, and an ankle breaker by Justin Faison of Gwynn Park, who shook an Eagle out of his shoes.
The second quarter was a carbon copy of the first. North Point got out to a large lead, but this time, they limited Gwynn Park’s counters.They built their lead up to 17 before Gwynn Park started chipping away at it again. The quarter ended, and North Point had extended their lead to 47-28 going into halftime. During halftime, North Point head coach Jimmy Ball gave his team a halftime speech like any other, but this time, they took it to heart, and came out firing. The Eagles built the lead to 20 early in the quarter, and never let it dip below that again. They buried the Yellow jackets in the second half with their full court press, and deadly 3 point shooting. They out muscled the Yellow Jackets for every rebound, and smothered their shooters. On top of it all, they nearly put up 100 points in this rivalry game.
Jalen Gibbs finished with 36, and said after the game “ I owe these thousand to all my teammates. It was them who made me better. “ Malik Lawerence finished with 26 points to come in second on his team. North Point improves their record to 2-1 and plays on Wednesday against Northern. Gwynn Park was led in scoring by Justin Faison who scored 25, but couldn’t get his three ball to fall. They fall to 1-1 and play Monday at Calvert.