Herndon girls overwhelm short-handed Oakton

We circled Herndon at Oakton a long time ago on the girls calendar as a intriguing conference opener between two fantastic teams. Well, it wasn’t exactly a fantastic game, but it certainly was intriguing.

At a tournament in Arizona over the holiday break, virtually all of Fred Priester’s Oakton team engaged in serious behavior not only against team and school policy, but that of general society as well. For that reason Priester suspended all but one player off his squad, promoting six JV players to join sophomore center Kate Vietmeyer on the varsity. His depleted squad managed to get a victory over Stone Bridge earlier this week, but it had virtually no chance against the powerful Hornets, who overwhelmed the Cougars 66-23. It was Oakton’s first loss of the season.

Although it is rumored at least some of the player suspensions will last for several weeks, Herndon coach Cornelius Snead was unsure of which players Oakton would use in the game. “It doesn’t matter who steps on the court,” Snead told his girls this week. “You need to give your best effort and play hard.” After the game he gave Oakton credit for doing exactly that. “For as many girls as they had they played hard the whole way.”

That they did. If you didn’t look at the scoreboard, you might have thought this was just another hotly-contested game between the two rivals. The crowd was into it, as were both coaches, who lobbied for calls as if the game was an elimination match-up in February. The suspended Oakton girls were even in the stands adjacent to the Cougar bench, cheering on their replacements at every turn.

The Cougars, with only seven players and unable to match the quickness of the Hornets, stayed in a zone and dared Herndon to shoot from outside. The Hornets did and although cold early, warmed up and finished a respectable 8 of 22 from three-point range on the night. They consistently were able to either drive the lane and dish to shooters, or hit junior forward Taylor Strawser in the high and low posts to do the same. In short, Herndon had too many weapons for the Cougars to stop.

The young Cougars found it even more challenging on offense, connecting on only six field goals on the night. The Hornets put constant pressure on the ball causing turnover after turnover. The Cougars had a size advantage and rebounded well, but were simply not experienced enough to slice through the Herndon defense and get good looks at the basket.

There were certainly positives for Oakton on the night, as younger players gleaned invaluable experience that will no doubt serve them well in later years. You could see them growing more comfortable as the game wore on, despite fatigue and Herndon’s relentless pressure. Vietmeyer led the way for the Cougars (0-1, 12-1), scoring in double digits. Freshman post player Meghan Kenefick led all rebounders on either squad on the night with nine.

The Hornets (1-0, 9-3) were led by junior guard Marlise Brunson, who had 17 points. Senior guard Indeya Sanders didn’t have her best shooting night but finished with nine points, also chipping in six assists. Fellow senior Janiece Loney had 13 points, while Strawser added 12. The Hornets were also 12 of 14 from the free throw line. Snead also thought his squad took away something from the game, despite his team not seeing Oakton at close to full strength.

“In the first half I wasn’t necessarily happy with the way we played,” Snead said after the game. “The second half was a better indication of how we like to play. I think we have the best district around, and our goal is to win it. We absolutely have to get better and better each game if we are going to realize our goal. It’s unfortunate what happened with them, but we have to play the way we have to play. We have to take care of teams on the defensive end first, and we eventually did that tonight.”

–Chris Jollay