Gaithersburg Nips Northwest to Claim Third Straight Regional Title

The undefeated Gaithersburg Lady Trojans prevailed over the Northwest High School in a hard-fought Maryland 4A West Regional final on Saturday night at Montgomery Blair High School.   

A back-and-forth first quarter saw the Lady Trojans take a 12-10 lead before Northwest rallied to a 19-18 lead at halftime. The Lady Trojans came out of the locker room on an 11-0 run to grab a 29-19 lead with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter, but Carla Batchelor and the Jaguars responded with a 6-0 run of their own, closing Gaithersburg’s lead to 31-25 after three quarters.

Defensive struggle gave way to offensive fireworks in the fourth quarter—22 points combined in the first quarter, 15 in the second, 19 in the third followed by 42 points in the fourth—as both teams pushed the pace, made clutch shots and steadied their nerves for free throws.

Colleen Marshall (16 points), Jackie Jackson (15) and Deja Rollins (12) were able to keep Northwest at bay enough in the final stanza to secure Gaithersburg 25th win of the season, their 50th straight going back to last year's state championship team.

Carla Batchelor led Northwest with 17 points to close out a stellar senior season in which she led the Lady Jaguars to a 20-5 record. Hillaeri Monsah and Kendra Meredith added 9 points each. 

Gaithersburg moves on to the Maryland 4A semifinals at 5pm on Thursday at UMBC’s RAC Arena, where they’ll face an unbeaten squad from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

Poly (23-0) claimed the 4A North Region with a 31-22 win over Springbrook on Friday night. The Gaithersburg-Poly winner will play for the state championship on March 10 against either North Point (24-1) or Wise (23-1).