Howard, the class of its space, pulled away with a 74-43 victory to proceed a season — and actually a decade or so — of dominance.
The win got here after senior night time festivities that summarized this most up-to-date interval of near-perfection. The Lions (17-1) are 61-2 in the previous three years since seniors Gabby Kennerly and Samiyah Nasir arrived. A 3rd senior, Jenna Vetter, has performed varsity since her junior 12 months. Their sophomore seasons had been canceled due to the pandemic.
Howard is undefeated inside the county over the three seasons, persistently delivering commanding performances. It has received each county recreation this season by not less than 29 factors. Its final six matchups in opposition to county foes have been wins of 31, 37, 42, 55, 63 and 62 factors.
Scott Robinson, who has coached the program since 2010, has maintained that excellence throughout his tenure. The Lions have received not less than 17 video games in each season since he arrived.
That success has constructed upon itself, conserving expertise in the program and serving to it flourish. Kennerly, who scored 20 on Friday and was named All-Met honorable point out as a junior, was recruited as an eighth-grader by a number of native personal colleges, together with McDonogh and Spalding.
But she had watched Howard play and was impressed.
“Coach Robinson, without any bias, he’s definitely a college-level coach,” Kennerly stated this week. “He’s getting every person that he’s coaching ready for the college level. … Even if we’re up by 40 points, he’s still going to be the same coach he is when we’re down by 40 points. He’s still going to push us.”
Robinson crafted the workforce’s picture on onerous work. It has been carried on by way of the seniors, who set examples of management to younger gamers, who then display it after they develop into extra skilled.
Nasir and Kennerly had been the freshmen as soon as, however now they’re the ones anticipated to information the Lions. They have embraced the duty, with Nasir saying they want to uphold the program’s fame.
Despite all the success, just two women’ basketball banners hold in Howard’s health club. One is from the program’s 1994 state championship; the different commemorates the 2020 squad’s 25-0 season that was reduce quick by the pandemic.
Robinson laments that missed likelihood, calling it the Lions’ deepest workforce. Last 12 months, Howard fell to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in the Class 3A title recreation.
But the coach, whose lone women’ basketball title got here with Mt. Hebron in 2008, stated he doesn’t dwell on the lack of a championship with Howard, selecting to measure his success extra by the relationships he has cultivated with gamers. Any want he has to win stems from wanting the women to expertise a championship, he stated.
For Kennerly, a championship would dwarf any 50-point win. Still, she acknowledged her workforce’s achievements are already sufficient to go away their legacy at Howard.
Nasir desires to full the “unfinished business” her squad has had since freshman 12 months. But she doesn’t need a singular aim to eat the workforce.
“You can’t focus on those types of things,” she stated. “Honestly, if you trust in the process, and you do what you’re doing … things will come into fruition.”