Weekend rewind: boys' basketball

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Tyrone Johnson, Montrose Christian

Tyrone Johnson is spending his senior season at Montrose Christian. Next year, he will play at Villanova.

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The Eagles have just a one-game lead in the conference standings over both La Plata (13-5, 7-1) and McDonough (11-6, 7-1), and they will host La Plata on Feb. 18 in a regular season finale that will decide the SMAC championship if both teams win their next three games before then.

And even more importantly, North Point needs to maintain its two-game cushion over Broadneck (16-2, 10-2 Anne Arundel) for the top seed in the Maryland 4A East region.

"It's nice to win, but our ultimate goal is to try get the No. 1 seed and have everyone come to us in the 4A East," North Point Coach Jimmy Ball said. "It'd be nice to play in our gym."

Privates

As a sophomore, Treveon Graham and his mother met with St. Mary's Ryken Coach Dave Tallman to talk about what kind of role Graham could play in the upcoming season.

Often times, the meetings revolve around parents with higher expectations than a coach is willing to cede for a young player who might not be as ready to contribute as the family believes Graham's meeting was decidedly different.

Graham and his mother were adamant that he should spend the season on junior varsity getting more experience on the court and being the central figure on that team instead of playing spot minutes at the end of the varsity bench.

"You don't get that too often from parents these days," Tallman said.

The decision seems to have paid off for the VCU-bound Graham, who started his high school career as a skinny 5-foot-8 guard and has since developed into one of the area's top players.

The 6-foot-5 Graham, who has played just two varsity seasons, surpassed the 1,000-career point mark on Saturday with 37 points in a 75-66 win over Riverdale Baptist. He is averaging 22.91 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.

"He's a pure scorer, he can knock down the shot with ease, his strength and his length really give people match-up problems," Tallman said. "He finds a way to score and does a lot to get to the rim. â?¦ He has worked so hard over the past couple years and developed himself into the player he is now."

Saturday's performance capped a big week not just for the senior, but also for Ryken. The Knights played six games in seven days and won five, dropping only a two-point result to No. 8 Paul VI, which has won nine straight.

Ryken downed No. 7 DeMatha, 67-60, on Wednesday, then-ranked O'Connell, 73-63, on Friday and Riverdale on Saturday.