Potomac Is Best, and It Shows

Wolverines Play to Crowd as They Finish Undefeated: Potomac (Md.) 83, Aberdeen 74

Potomac boys' basketball coach Rico Reed celebrates his team's 2A championship victory over Aberdeen yesterday at Comcast Center. "Words cannot express what I'm feeling right now," said coach. (Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

With third-ranked Potomac (Md.), there are two matters at hand. The Wolverines want to win games, but they also want to entertain themselves and the crowd. Last night, for the final time this season, Potomac accomplished both goals, capping an undefeated season with a victory in the Maryland 2A championship game.

Junior forward Bobby Shannon scored 32 points, senior center Dante Cunningham added 25, and then it was time to celebrate as Potomac defeated Aberdeen, 83-74, in front of 3,500 at Comcast Center.

Although Potomac never pulled away completely and its lead was seven with half a minute left, the Wolverines began passing around T-shirts to commemorate their pending championship and 27-0 season. Combined with a 14-0 football season and its girls' basketball team's triumph in its state final earlier yesterday, the Oxon Hill school is the first in Maryland history to win state titles in those three sports in the same academic year.

"We honestly talked state championship from Day One," Potomac Coach Rico Reed said. "This is when we won 15 games last year. But we honestly talked state championship. I'm just so proud of these guys. Words cannot express what I'm feeling right now."

If Reed or his players could not say how they felt, it was clear from their actions. After proudly showing off their crisp white shirts to their fans and players squirting water on their coach, the Wolverines accepted their trophies and began to dance in the middle of the court. A huddle formed around Reed, who did a number of his own.

"He had started it in practice one day, and he said when we win the championship, he would do it after the game," Shannon said. "We tried to get him to do it before the game, but he said only if we win."

It was a last entertaining moment for the Wolverines, who overcame an early deficit behind the play of Shannon and Cunningham. Cunningham added 13 rebounds, and Shannon had nine rebounds and five steals. The two combined for all but four of their team's points as Potomac took a 35-29 halftime lead.

Aberdeen (22-5) stayed close until Shannon scored eight consecutive points on a pair of three-pointers from the right side and a runner down the lane. Cunningham then dunked a missed shot, and the Wolverines had a 51-39 lead with 2 minutes 30 seconds left in the third quarter.

It was one of several dunks for Potomac, which relishes the chance to make highlight-style plays; in the first quarter with the game tied at 12, Donald Kirk made a steal and instead of taking an uncontested layup, tried to throw an alley-oop pass off the backboard to Cunningham, but the ball was just a little too high.

"Obviously, I allow a little more maybe than some other coaches do," Reed said. "But they understand. Donald threw the lob off the backboard to Dante, which we've probably finished 25 times this season, but I pulled him and chewed him out the way I do it. And then I put him right back out on the floor because we know the dos and don'ts. We understand that. But this is how we play the game."

Aberdeen cut it to 79-74 with 15 seconds left, but by that point, Potomac's players had turned their attention to the crowd, waving their arms and new shirts in the air as many fans chanted, "Undefeated!"

"I thought we put on a pretty good show," Shannon said. "What did you think?"