Rebels, Leopards notch wins at Hubs Classic

Washington County boys teams nearly made it a clean sweep of the two-day Hubs Classic at North Hagerstown, but Huntingtown ruined the script in the final five minutes of the nightcap.

After South Hagerstown slipped past Middletown 46-41 and Smithsburg toppled Oakdale 70-58 to make county teams 5-0 including Tuesday’s opening round, Huntingtown came from behind to defeat North Hagerstown, 49-44.


Finishing 5-1 wasn’t all that bad, and the highlight of Wednesday’s play was the victory by Smithsburg against a talented Frederick County team led by 6-foot-4 sophomore Zach Thomas.

The Leopards (7-2) are off to the best start by a Smithsburg team to open the season since 2002-03.

After a lethargic first half in which Oakdale (6-2) held a 29-25 lead, there were some fires set in the Smithsburg locker room at halftime.

“We needed to get someone out there and step up, stop Thomas, and break into their 1-2-2 zone,” said Smithsburg coach Eric Gerber.

Those things happened.

Thomas scored 21 of his points in the first half, then found the going tough in the second half, especially against Brad Spickler.

Spickler scored a team-high 16 points — 14 in the second half. On three occasions, Spickler put together conventional three-point plays.

The first helped boost Smithsburg to a 39-33 lead midway through the third quarter after the Leopards rallied from a 29-23 deficit late in the first half.

Spickler did plenty of dirty work, collecting 12 rebounds — seven on the offensive end.

“(Spickler) is one of those kids that goes under the radar,” said Gerber. “He could care less if he scores two or 16 points as long as we win.”

Jordan Fortson scored 14 points and Tyson Pierre added 11 for Smithsburg. Devaughn Wynne had eight points, including two 3-pointers.

* South Hagerstown (6-2) and Middletown (3-3) appeared to be in different time zones for much of their encounter.

But the Rebels — trailing 39-35 after turnovers enabled Middletown to take a late lead — found a late burst of energy.

A three-point play by Devon King got the Rebels within 41-40 with 1:33 remaining. After a missed shot by Middletown’s Ethan Winn, C.J. Davis scored on a layup off an assist from Devonte Morel for a 42-41 lead with 33 seconds left.

After the Knights missed two shots, they were forced to foul and Xavier Freeman dropped in two free throws for a 44-41 lead with 5 seconds to play. Morel then swiped the inbounds pass and went the distance to jam down the final points.

“It was an ugly win, for sure,” said South coach Kevin Naylor. “And we’re not scoring right now because we don’t have a consistent outside shooter. And that’s why Middletown made it tough packing in their defense.”

King led the Rebels with 14 points, Freeman and Davis each contributed 10 points and Morel added nine.