Broadneck Boys Take Basketball Fans On Bumpy Ride

At times this season, Broadneck’s boys basketball team has been an amusement park, with each game its own separate ride.

One or two have been predictable and straightforward. A handful have looked mundane but found to be replete with surprises. Many more have been outright wild thrill rides.

As one would expect, that has resulted in a roller-coaster season thus far, where the Bruins find themselves 11-7 but still in the thick of county championship and state tournament contention.

In the last few weeks, after a huge comeback win over Glen Burnie, Broadneck scored big wins over Chesapeake (71-25 on January 22) and North County (75-38 on January 13) but followed that up with four losses out of five. They beat Meade (78-66 on January 31) but fell to Old Mill (54-49 on January 26), Northeast (69-66 on January 30), Severna Park (62-55 on February 2) and South River (65-49 on February 5). The Bruins wrapped the stretch up with a 69-47 win against Southern on February 9.

Broadneck has no trouble matching up athlete for athlete with most teams. They’ve got an elite scorer in senior guard Jordan Brown, a good supporting cast with ball handlers and shooters, and grinders Devin McGowan and Joey Smargissi in the paint doing the dirty work.

It’s a combination of streaky shooting and a flair for the dramatic that the team is trying to figure out. At the same time, they are enjoying the ride.

“Going behind big has happened often this season — probably way too often,” McGowan said. “But it seems like every time we do go down, we come back, and that says something about a team. It's kind of cool to be a part of that.

“It's a streaky offense. In the fourth quarter, we shoot the lights out, and there's stretches in the first half where we slow down. It's (a matter) of trying to keep that energy all game.”

The first time against Severna Park, Broadneck trailed by 21 and won it late. Against Glen Burnie, they trailed by 15 late in the game and won by five. The second game against Severna Park, the Bruins trailed by 16 and attempted what would have been their most epic comeback yet, but they simply ran out of time and magic.

The biggest thing the Bruins have taken away, while they work on their consistency, is that they’re truly never out of a basketball game.

“These guys never give up. We’ve had three or four 20-point comebacks this year, so we know that we’re never out of it until the final buzzer,” said Broadneck coach Jeff Starr. “You want to be able to look back and say that you gave a complete effort and an honest effort. Hopefully the scoreboard indicates that’s a win, but you want to be proud of your effort. We always have fight in us.”

As the regular season wraps up and county and region tournaments take center stage, Broadneck is working to make that fight bear fruit across the entire basketball game, rather than in fits and starts.

When things click across 32 minutes, though, the team is confident that it’s going to lead to big things.

“I know these guys will bounce back. It’s a season where we’ve had a very challenging schedule and hopefully it pays off for us come playoff time,” Starr said. “This was hopefully a hiccup, but we’ve still got opportunities. We want to be hitting our stride when the playoffs come.”