Potomac Falls and Stuart are two young teams that have taken a lot of lumps this year, but both squads have clearly improved. On Monday night both the Panthers and the Raiders demonstrated a fair amount of resilience in their matchup. However, it was visiting Potomac Falls that came away with the win in the end, 54-46.
It was a low-scoring game early with Potomac Falls leading after one quarter by four, but things started to open up in the second. As halftime neared the Panthers’ seniors were key in extending their team’s lead to double digits. After a basket by Nishon McCants, guard Gianna Torres came up with a steal and a bucket to make it 30-19 at halftime. At that point things were flowing easily for Potomac Falls. The Panthers’ defense was forcing turnovers, their fairly small team was controlling the defensive boards and they were getting contributions from almost everyone who played.
Potomac Falls coach Lynn Ewald was pleased with that. “We had nine players score tonight,” said Ewald. “We don’t have a girl that is going to jump out and score a ton of points for us, so we need that balance.”
Stuart did anything but rollover after halftime, though. The Raiders came storming back in the third quarter, out-scoring Potomac Falls 17-9. The team’s leading scorer on the year, freshman guard Luisa Lambo, was able to consistently attack the rim successfully. Junior Mayada Hassan had two key plays–a nice drive from the top of the key that resulted in a three-point play, and also a put-back offensive rebound that resulted in the same. Coach Ewald, upset with his team’s defense, called a time out midway through the frame but it didn’t help much. A few minutes later a Lambo lay-up closed the Stuart deficit to 37-36 with just a little bit left in the third quarter.
“We started pushing the tempo a little bit,” said Stuart coach Brandon Sutphin. “That caused them to break down defensively and got us some easy looks. [The rally] definitely showed we have some great fight.”
Unfortunately for the Raiders, that was as close as they got. Their opponents got a nice lift at that point from freshman post player Katherine Goetz (eight points), who scored successive baskets and pounded the glass. Goetz had been called up to the varsity midseason, and was instrumental in stopping Stuart’s momentum.
The Panthers re-committed themselves on the defensive end and soon extended their lead back to double digits. The team’s leading scorer, sophomore forward Natalie Brennan, came alive in the fourth quarter with eight points, five coming from the free throw line. Stuart pounded the offensive glass and continued to fight, cutting the deficit to 51-46 on a three-pointer by freshman guard Emiko O’Cadiz, but it wasn’t enough.
Stuart (4-13) was led by Lambo with 14 points, while Hassan chipped in 10 and O’Cadiz nine. It was a tough loss for the young Raiders, who still are progressing nicely as far as Sutphin is concerned. “We have nine-plus players new to the varsity level this year and it’s a work in progress. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re getting better game after game after game.”
The Raiders seem to indeed have brighter times ahead, as does Potomac Falls. On Monday Brennan finished with 11 points while Torres and junior Grace Deker added nine points apiece. It was a team win for the Panthers (7-11), who were playing their fourth road game in less than a week. They won three of those games and now look to finish the season strong.
“A lot of it’s mental,” Ewald said. “We haven’t had the most success in the past few years and so sometimes you just have to get used to winning. It’s a mentality and in previous years when things have gone wrong we’ve had a tendency to let things build up. This year we’ve done a good job of bouncing back and tonight is a good example. We had a rough third quarter but we still found a way to get it done.”
–Chris Jollay