Anytime you rally to defeat a team on the road down double digits, it’s a good win. Anytime you can do that to a district rival on that team’s senior night, it’s a really good win.
Centreville got a really good win Thursday night at Chantilly.
While Chantilly was winless in the Concorde District coming into the game, the Chargers played some inspired basketball after they honored their five seniors pre-game. The home team raced to a 10-0 early lead, briefly expanding it in the second quarter before going into intermission up 28-21.
“We did start off pretty slow,” said Centreville coach Andrew Hypnar of his young team. “There’s no quit in the team at all, but unfortunately sometimes we like to dig ourselves in that hole.”
The Wildcats (3-5, 6-12) turned the tables after halftime. Sophomore guard Jaxson Davis cut through the Chantilly zone for a basket. The Wildcats defense forced a turnover, then freshman forward William Robinson buried a three-pointer. After another turnover, Jeremiah Clagett scored. Then fellow sophomore Luke Scharkowski drove to the hoop, completing a 10-0 Wildcats run to start the second half.
Centreville took the lead, but there was no quit in the Chargers on this night. Senior Hudson Acocella, who came off the bench initially, scored 10 of his 12 total points in the second half to lead Chantilly back. Thanks in no small part to his all-around play, the home team led 46-43 late in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats again responded. Scharkowski hit a three-pointer well beyond the arc to tie it. Then when Centreville got the ball back, Robinson hit another three, again from well beyond the three-point line. There were a few anxious moments after that, such as when Chantilly junior Amare Elshoush got a steal with his team down three. But a Chantilly turnover with six seconds left iced the game for Centreville.
Davis led his team with 18 points, while Robinson added 17. Scharkowski had eight points, and those three players were an impressive 8-13 from three-point range combined on the evening. One of Centreville’s few seniors, Maurcus Gibson, finished with seven points and seven rebounds, and contributed two key free throws late.
Acocella’s 12 points led Chantilly (0-8, 5-14). He and the other four seniors all contributed in the box score, while Chargers junior Ivan So and sophomore Jordan Davenport had eight points apiece.
“Give Chantilly credit, they came out hard and played well,” said Hypnar. “We have five sophomores on our team and two freshmen, we are super young. But the future is definitely bright. We started 1-9…but now we’ve strung together some wins against some tough teams.”
Some really good wins.
–Chris Jollay
all stats are unofficial
| CHANTILLY | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| SO | 2-14 | 4-6 | 8 | 5 | 1 | |
| ELSHOUSH | 3-7 | 0-0 | 7 | 5 | 3 | |
| SWINDELL | 3-7 | 0-0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | |
| DAVENPORT | 4-10 | 0-1 | 8 | 5 | 1 | |
| PROCHAZKA | 3-6 | 0-0 | 6 | 5 | 1 | |
| Yaeger | 1-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shajeev | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Acocella | 5-8 | 0-0 | 12 | 4 | 1 | |
| Lyons | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| TOTALS | 21-54 | 4-7 | 50 | 26 | 11 | |
| Threes: Acocella 2-4, Elshoush 1-3, Swindell 1-3, Shajeev 0-1, Davenport 0-3, So 0-4 | ||||||
| CENTREVILLE | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| DAVIS | 7-15 | 1-2 | 18 | 2 | 3 | |
| ROBINSON | 7-13 | 0-1 | 17 | 7 | 3 | |
| SCHARKOWSK | 3-5 | 0-1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | |
| CLAGETT | 1-4 | 1-1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| GIBSON | 2-5 | 2-2 | 7 | 7 | 1 | |
| Lee | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Smith | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Terry | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Andrades | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| TOTALS | 20-46 | 4-9 | 53 | 27 | 12 | |
| Threes: Davis 3-4, Robinson 3-6, Scharkowski 2-3, Gibson 1-2, Lee 0-2, Andrades 0-3 | ||||||