In came Carlton Hill, who missed the free throw but collected his own rebound — and found teammate Micah Webb for a three-pointer that capped a crucial six-point trip in what ultimately turned into an 86-76 Warriors win in a clash between Montgomery County heavyweights in Silver Spring.
“I’m not going to lie. I was kind of nervous when I saw Evin on the ground,” said Webb, who scored a game-high 31 points. “… He trusted me, my team trusted me … so I just had to play through it.”
Sherwood (9-1) played through a lot. The host Bengals (8-3) led by 13 after the first quarter, but the visitors stayed composed, cutting the deficit to two by halftime. They trailed much of the second half but remained within striking distance thanks in large part to Webb, who scored 20 points in the second half.
“A lot of my teammates were finding me, telling me to shoot it. So I was just like, ‘All right, if they want me to shoot it, I’m just going to keep on shooting it,’ ” Webb said.
A perfect example came with two minutes remaining and Sherwood clinging to a lead. The senior drove into a pair of defenders and spun left — to his shooting hand — before making a fadeaway jumper.
“They [were] trusting me, and I was trusting them,” Webb said.
In the teams’ matchup a little more than a year ago, Webb missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have given Sherwood a one-point win. The defeat, and the guard’s role in it, took a toll on his confidence. He got a measure of redemption Friday but emphasized that the win was a small step in a larger journey.
That journey includes another meeting with the Bengals in about a month. There’s reason to expect that contest to be heated — after the buzzer Friday, there was some pushing and shoving between the teams, and Webb noted “a lot of bad blood.”