Blue Devils exorcise hoop demons

Springbrook beats Magruder to reach states; Springbrook 64, Magruder 52

Until now.

Led by a dominant performance from senior guard C.J. Garner, who sliced and diced to a game-high 24 points, the Blue Devils exorcised their demons in blue, 64-52, to capture the 4A West Region championship Saturday at Blair High School in Silver Spring. Their second straight victory over Magruder (18-7 record) — they beat Magruder, 56-52, on Feb. 8 — not only won them the season series, it propelled them to the Class 4A boys state semifinals, where they will face Prince George’s County’s Laurel at 9 p.m. this Thursday at Comcast Center on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park.

‘‘We know what type of team they are and coach [Tom Crowell] prepared us for the defensive pressure we were going to face,” said Garner, who added six rebounds and four assists in his best-ever performance against Magruder. ‘‘We handled the press well — I thought the big men were big. They really stepped up without our Jamal.”

The name Garner speaks of is the Blue Devils’ versatile big man, Jamal Olasewere. The only junior in the starting lineup, he’s been a force all year, averaging over 15 points and 10 rebounds per game. And he was his usual imposing post-presence in the first half against Magruder, scoring six points, snatching six rebounds, blocking two shots and nabbing two steals.

But an unusual incident knocked him out of the game. With 6 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter and Springbrook clinging to a 30-25 lead, Olasewere grabbed a rebound, but caught his forearm Colonel point guard Alex Lee’s face, knocking him to the ground.

Exactly what happened next is uncertain — what is certain is that, after getting up, Lee walked right over to the 6-foot-4 power forward at midcourt. He appeared to poke Olasewere in the chest, either an offer to reconcile or to provoke, to which Olasewere responded by allegedly slapping him in the face. Double technical fouls were issued, but the apparent slap earned Springbrook’s best post-player an automatic ejection.

‘‘I walked away and the ref was talking to me, then he walked over to other refs,” said Olasewere. ‘‘[Alex] Lee came up to me and started pointing in my chest with his arm. I was like, ‘Don’t touch me.’ I tried to push his arm away, and being the great actor that he is, he fell back.”

But what really changed the course of the game was what happened on the Blue Devils’ next possession. First, Lee was called for a block on a drive by Springbrook’s Mounda Williams. He then threw his arms up in disgust, and was immediately assessed with another technical foul. The latter was both his second tech and his fifth foul, automatically removing him from the game.

This proved to be an even bigger blow to Magruder than Olasewere’s was to Springbrook. Lee is a terrific ball-handler, and arguably the team’s most important player. Though it has athletic, multi-dimensional swingmen in seniors Stefan Fields (18 points on the night) and Brian Henderson (17 points), no one can run the offense as effectively as the three-year starting point guard. After he left, the Colonels were outscored 11-3 to close out the third quarter, and never seriously challenged again.

‘‘He’s our all-time leading assist leader, he’s got over 300 assists, and we really don’t have a backup point for him,” said Magruder head coach Dan Harwood. ‘‘That hurt us. But you know, this was our goal to get here. For us to do that, 18 wins and to get here for the seventh time in eight years. ... If we had lost before this it would have been a good season with a disappointing ending. This is a great season with a disappointing ending.”

Meanwhile, Olasewere’s sidekicks stepped into the breach and performed admirably. Starting center Ebou Touray and junior Brandon Davis combined for 20 points. And Garner, who’s averaging over 21 points per game for the second year in a row, either scored or dished assists repeatedly in the decisive second half.

‘‘That’s the best he’s ever played against us,” said Harwood. ‘‘He stepped up and took over the game.”