For the West Potomac Wolverines, the story is no longer about their starting point guard transferring in the offseason to state champion Hayfield. It’s about them, and the very real possibility they again will be crowned as Patriot District champions.
The Wolverines flipped the script more than a month ago. Since losing to Patriot District rival Fairfax in early January, West Potomac has won 13 out of 15 games and Wednesday night took another step toward defending its district tournament title with a 53-48 win at regular-season champion Alexandria City.
The Wolverines (15-8) recovered from a rough first half against the top-seeded Titans, outscoring the home team 22-11 in the third quarter before four different players combined to go 8-for-9 at the foul line down the stretch to seal the victory.
On Friday, they will play at South County, a 58-50 winner on Tuesday at Fairfax, for a chance to nail down their district’s No. 1 seed for the following week’s region tournament, which features none other than Hayfield.
A year ago, the Wolverines won the district tournament as the #5 seed. This year, they’re the fourth seed.
On Tuesday, it was another team effort to get the job done, starting with freshman point guard Chris Morrison.
Morrison began the season on the Wolverines’ JV team before his call-up and eventual starting lineup shift by coach David Houston III that has helped turn his squad “into the toughest team in the region,” the coach said.
Houston heaped praise on Morrison, who took the spot of the transfer Donovan Bass-Briscoe.
“We bring [Chris] up to varsity after the season began and the first thing he has to do is run our offense against South Lakes and Potomac and then our district rivals like South County and Fairfax,” Houston said.
“We knew replacing Bass-Briscoe wasn’t going to be easy, and that it would take more than one player to make up for a talent like him. We focused on it during the preseason and here we are. What a great story we’ve been.”
Morrison scored eight points on Wednesday and along with Dominic Sanchez, Grant Hartzell and BJ Nkrumah, converted twice at the line to hold off Alexandria City.
The Titans (19-5) were up by eight at halftime, a lead they relinquished less than four minutes into the third quarter. But AC’s Darius Brim’s basket with 4:26 left in the fourth quarter made it a 47-47 game. Down three with 12 seconds to play, Alexandria City missed on a three-point shot attempt.
“We really picked up the energy in the second half,” Morrison said. “Defensively, we focused on their guards because we knew they could finish well.”
Hartzell, a senior, said the comeback started with defense.
“Everyone, especially our seniors, give everything they can every game and [Wednesday] was no different,” he said.
Hartzell had six points in the third quarter and finished with 10. Nkrumah gave his team it’s first lead since the opening minutes on a basket with 4:04 left in the third.
“That was BJ’s best game of his career,” Houston said. “We’ve wanted him to be aggressive to the basket and he was tonight.”
Savion Gowder (eight points) and Joe Humphreys (five points) also contributed Wednesday as they have since the Wolverines adjusted their lineup more than a month ago.
Kye Robinson led Alexandria City with 15 points.
–Paul Bergeron
@PaulBergeron3