No. 1 Arundel girls easily handle No. 5 Southern

Overcoming a 12-point deficit after one quarter is possible. But asking a team to recover from a 31-point halftime margin is basically impossible - especially against this year's Arundel squad.

Leading 25-13 after the first quarter, the top-ranked Wildcats posted 25 second-quarter points and held Southern to a scant seven en route to an 86-48 victory over the fifth-ranked Bulldogs.

The victory kept Arundel unbeaten in county play at 12-0 (13-4 overall), while the loss dropped Southern to 7-4 in the county (12-6). The easy victory also took some of the sting out of the first matchup between the county basketball powers, which...