Oakton Crump
Caitlin Crump (10 points) moved to point guard a few weeks ago and the move is paying dividends for the still-improving Cougars.

Oakton returns to states with 51-40 victory over Langley

Some tweaks here, lineup changes there and just like that, the Oakton girls basketball team has played its way into the state tournament.

The Cougars used a stifling defense and hit just enough free throws in the second half to top Langley, 51-40, at home in one Region 6D semifinal Thursday night.

Oakton (21-6) will take on Madison on Friday night in the region final. The Warhawks stopped Centreville, 44-35, in Thursday’s other semifinal.

Madison, the defending state champs, won two regular-season meetings with Oakton before the Cougars used a buzzer-beater to get a Concorde District Tournament victory over their Vienna rivals as the No. 4 seed.

It has seemingly been automatic for Oakton, so to speak, over the years under coach Fred Priester, who has more than 700 wins in his career. But this trip to states is its first since 2017 – the first for this roster.

Senior Caitlin Crump has been a big part of her team’s turnaround. Priester moved her to point guard a few weeks ago and it has paid dividends. Against Langley, she often brought the ball up the floor before her team got into its half-court sets.

“We had a dip in mid-season and then things have turned around,” Crump said. “We started communicating better, working together better and building that camaraderie. We had gotten tired of losing. Something just changed.”

The Cougars made things very difficult for Langley (20-6) in the first half, holding the Saxons to two points in the first quarter and seven for the half.

Meanwhile, Finley Tarr (12 points) canned three three-pointers in the second quarter and teammate Ellen Grace Burke (six points) hit two more as Oakton forged a 24-7 lead at intermission.

Oakton junior Finley Tarr got hot
Oakton junior Finley Tarr got hot from the arc in the second quarter, hitting three treys.

“Getting open and hitting those threes was a big part of our plan coming out,” said Crump, who finished with 10 points.

The Saxons surged in the third quarter and multiple times cut their deficit to 11. But missed foul shots prevented them from getting much closer. In the fourth quarter, Langley got within nine points and one other time trailed by 10 and had one of its top scorers get fouled on a three-point attempt, but all three free throws were off the mark.

The Saxons finished just nine for 21 at the foul line for the game.

“Our shots weren’t falling; we tried to trap them; we needed to communicate more,” Langley sophomore Peyton Daley said. She finished with 13 points.

Oakton made just 16 of 31 free throws in the game.

Oakton freshman Sophie Toole and the Cougar defense did a good job slowing down Anya Rahman.
Oakton freshman Sophie Toole and the Cougar defense did a good job slowing down Anya Rahman.

The Cougars came in wanting to limit Saxons’ sophomore guard Anya Rahman, who tallied 26 points in her team’s 57-43 quarterfinal win over South Lakes. Sophie Toole and Grace Hansen alternated guarding her, holding her to eight points.

“We just continue to get better,” Priester said. “At the beginning of the year, we put a lot in our playbook – it was a smorgasbord – but lately, we’ve found what works best, stripped away the rest, and have been sticking to that. You can see, it comes from everyone. It’s not just one or two players getting it done.”

–Paul Bergeron
@PaulBergeron3