A battle of the birds in the MPSSAA 3A Region Final, as the 22-2 Stephen Decatur Seahawks continue their journey for the first basketball state title since 1970 by hosting the 19-3 Severna Park Falcons.
Severna Park started their season off losing two of their first three games, but since then the Falcons have been on fire. Since the 57 - 56 loss to Broadneck on December 15, the Falcons went on to win seventeen of their final eighteen regular season games. After a first round bye, Severna Park defeated South River 54 - 47 to advance to the region finals.
On the other side, Stephen Decatur is searching for their fifth regional title since 2016 with a win. They come into this matchup as winners of twelve of their last thirteen games. A team that is predominantly filled with football players that were fresh off a state championship, started the basketball season with chemistry and stamina that seemed unmatched. A 12-0 start to the season where any member of the Decatur starting five could take over the game, made this group a scary bunch. Alas, all good starts come to an end as the Decatur core would lose their first sports contest since the winter of 2023 (an undefeated football season) in a 64 - 62 loss to Snow Hill.
The Seahawks would bounce back by winning their next eleven games by a combined 342 points landing them a spot in the Bayside Championship as the favorites to hoist the trophy. However, after a hard fought battle, a motivated and determined Cambridge-South Dorchester team would pull off the upset 70 - 57 and Stephen Decatur would suffer just their second loss of the season.
Defeat tends to motivate and similar to their first loss, Decatur bounced back after this one. After a round one bye, Stephen Decatur would host the James M Bennett Clippers in their first MPSSAA game, hoping to defeat a competitive JMB for the third time this season. An energized Seahawks team would hop out to an early double digit lead behind a stout defensive effort. The Clippers would rally back, but Vanderbilt football commit Brycen Coleman would score twelve points in the fourth quarter to help the Seahawks advance to the region finals with a 70 - 66 win.
Now, with the pressure to be the first Bayside school to win a football and basketball state championship in the same year since Cambridge in 1996, will the Seahawks be able to get another big win to keep the dream alive or will the Falcons come into Berlin and pull off the upset? Tune in to The Final Score tonight at 10:30pm for the highlights of all the action from Berlin.
