CAMBRIDGE — After a pair of thrilling overtime wins lifted Fort Hill to a region championship, the Sentinels’ reward is Class 1A’s No. 1 seed Cambridge-South Dorchester.
Eighth-seeded Fort Hill (14-9), in search of a third straight Final Four berth, heads to Cambridge-SD (23-2) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
All tickets must be purchased online and cost $6. The link to buy them can be found here: https://gofan.co/app/school/MPSSAA.
Doors open for the public at 3:15 p.m. No bags or purses will be allowed in the facility.
How they got here
Fort Hill defeated Mountain Ridge, 59-56, in overtime Thursday for its third consecutive West Region I championship.
The Sentinels, champions of the Western Maryland Athletic Conference, needed overtime in the semifinals too, ousting Southern, 62-58.
Cambridge-SD was pushed to the limit in its own regional playoff, edging Snow Hill, 64-61, in the East Region II final two days after edging Pocomoke, 67-66, in the semifinals.
The Vikings went 20-0 in non-tournament games during the regular season. They lost to Stephen Decatur, 60-48, in the Bayside Conference championship game.
What they’re saying
Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner: “We’re going to have to be extremely fundamental. We’re going to have to rebound the ball. We’re going to have to make shots. … If we’re going to upset anybody, we’re going to have to make shots.”
Sentinels senior guard Gamil Daniels: “We aren’t scared of any team. We’re going to come in and treat it like it’s any other team.”
Players to watch
Gamil and Jabril Daniels led the way for Fort Hill in the Sentinels’ region final with 18 and 16 points, respectively, and Liam Hamilton added 11 points.
Hamilton is the team’s leading scorer at 13.1 points per game, followed by Gamil Daniels (11.9), Jabril Daniels (9.2) and Landen Sweitzer (8.3).
Sweitzer has made a team-high 28 3-pointers.
Semaj Pinder scored a game-high 18 points and Koby Ennals added 12 in Cambridge-SD’s region championship victory. Both were fixtures on last year’s Vikings squad that advanced to the state finals.
Out for revenge
Fort Hill is looking to avenge a 60-53 defeat to Cambridge-SD in the state semifinals last season.
The Vikings went on to advance to the state final in College Park where it ultimately dropped a 69-65 heartbreaker to Edmondson.
Cambridge-SD, meanwhile, will try to exact some revenge for its football program, which went undefeated during the regular season before being eliminated by Fort Hill, 30-12, in the state quarters on its home field.
Fort Hill also knocked Cambridge-SD out of the 2022 state football playoffs, defeating the Vikings, 38-20, in the 2023 state semifinals in Cumberland.
Final Four streak
Fort Hill is out for its third straight Final Four berth, which would be a program first.
The Sentinels have made consecutive trips in 1948-49, 2000-01, 2007-08 and 2023-24.
Fort Hill has advanced to the championship game four times and most recently in 1973 when it was state runner-up. The Sentinels won titles in 1948, ‘49 and ‘58 under Bobby Cavanaugh.
What’s at stake
The winner advances to the state semifinals which will be played at a neutral site on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
No. 4 Liberty (19-4) and No. 5 Colonel Richardson (19-5) await the victor in the other half of the bracket.