Monday night at home, West Springfield got ten second half points from reserve junior guard Maya Williams to defeat Lake Braddock, 44-38. The first round Patriot District Tournament victory clinched an Occoquan Regional Tournament spot for the fifth-seeded Spartans and ended eighth -seeded Lake Braddock’s season.
Lake Braddock finished last in the Patriot, but had won three straight games coming into the contest. After falling behind 10-2 early, the Bruins tied the game up by halftime at 19, and led 26-22 midway through the third quarter.
That’s when Williams started to get going. She scored six third quarter points to pull the Spartans to within 30-29 by the end of the third quarter. Then she played a key role in a 7-0 West Springfield run to open the fourth, at one point making an acrobatic layup and then seconds later taking a charge on defense.
“She’s our spark plug,” said West Springfield coach Bill Gibson of Williams. “Hit big free throws, too.”
The Spartans needed all Williams’ spark, as five straight Emily DePaul points brought the Bruins back to within 38-37 with about three minutes left in the game. Spartans junior guard Lilia Mellor then found senior forward Isabella Hollandsworth for the second time in the half to make it 40-37, and the Bruins could not register a field goal the rest of the way.
Mellor, Williams, and company iced the game at the line. The Spartans were 8-9 from the charity stripe in the second half alone, while the Bruins only shot six free throws the entire game, making two.
Hollandsworth finished with 10 points as did senior Carleigh Collins for the Spartans (11-10), who now advance to play fourth-seeded Woodson Tuesday evening in the second round of the Patriot Tournament. The Spartans fell to Woodson twice during the regular season–by a total of three points.
“Shoot better,” Gibson responded when asked what his team has to do to get past Woodson. “We have bad shooting games, and live and die by it. It’s always been about defense since I’ve been here, though.”
Junior Kaitlyn Lastra buried three three-pointers for the Bruins (4-19), and led her team with 11 points.
–Chris Jollay
all statistics are unofficial
| LAKE BRADDOCK | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| MAGNUSON | 3-10 | 1-4 | 7 | 6 | 1 | |
| CAJCHUN | 3-11 | 0-0 | 7 | 8 | 3 | |
| DePAUL | 4-10 | 0-0 | 9 | 8 | 2 | |
| BURGER | 0-4 | 1-2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |
| LASTRA | 4-11 | 0-0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | |
| So | 1-1 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Le | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 15-47 | 2-6 | 38 | 26 | 9 | |
| Threes: Lastra 3-9, So 1-1, DePaul 1-4, Cajchun 1-7, Magnuson 0-1, Burger 0-2 | ||||||
| WEST SPRINGFIELD | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| MELLOR | 2-10 | 2-2 | 6 | 8 | 2 | |
| RAPOZA | 0-2 | 2-2 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |
| COLLINS | 4-7 | 0-0 | 10 | 1 | 0 | |
| HOLLANDS- WORTH | 4-6 | 2-3 | 10 | 5 | 0 | |
| JAMES | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Horne | 2-3 | 1-2 | 5 | 0 | 3 | |
| Busch | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | |
| Williams | 3-4 | 4-6 | 11 | 0 | 2 | |
| Eldredge | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wilborn | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 15-40 | 11-15 | 44 | 28 | 10 | |
| Threes: Collins 2-5, Williams 1-1, Hollandsworth 0-1, Horne 0-1, Eldredge 0-1, Busch 0-2, Mellor 0-3, James 0-3 | ||||||