Some people celebrate their birthdays with a big party. Others like to travel to a luxurious vacation spot. Some people simply like to do nothing at all for their birthday.
Senior forward Eamon Welsh celebrated his birthday on Monday by leading the Briar Woods boys basketball team with a double-double to help secure a 51-38 upset victory over host Independence in the Potomac District Quarterfinals. Welsh finished the game with 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
“I just tried to put my head down and make plays,” Welsh said. “Getting a big win in the playoffs feels great. I knew if I attacked good things would happen, and even if I wasn’t getting my own shot I could pass it out.”
Briar Woods head coach Derek Butler commended Welsh’s leadership.
“It’s good to see your leader step up,” Coach Butler said. “He’s our captain, so they look up to him. He’s as hard on himself if things aren’t going well. He wanted the ball tonight and he was finishing around the rim. Not only did we get it inside to him, he’d take it outside and went by people to score on the drive, he was doing it all ways tonight.”
Senior guard Wesley Williams led the way for the Tigers with 13 points, and three assists. Briar Woods freshman forward Ryan Brzezanski also contributed 6 points, 11 rebounds, and a block.
The first quarter saw minimal scoring as there was a combination of both tight defense, and also offensive errors. Independence led 9-6 heading into the second quarter. The scoring drought continued into the second quarter until Welsh ignited his team on a late 8-2 run, giving the Falcons a 17-13 lead at half.
“We were a little out-of-sync, it might have had something to do with their defense,” Coach Butler said. “We tried to get a little more motion into our offense and I think we finally got into the flow of that. We like to play inside-out if we can, and we finally got the ball inside to Eamon.”
Welsh helped maintain the Falcons momentum at the start of the 3rd quarter as he contributed nine points on the Falcons 12-4 run to start the second half. Briar Woods led 30-23 heading into the final quarter.
“Third quarter has been a tough one for us,” Coach Butler said. “We will come out of the third intense, then we’ll get stops, but we can’t score. We tried to get the ball back into Eamon–he was having a good game– and once we saw it go in we got some confidence and we felt the momentum.”
The Tigers (8-14) cut the lead to eight with four minutes left in the game, but Briar Woods held Independence to just six points in the last four minutes of the game.
“We’ve hung our head on our defense all year, so we took a lot of pride in trying to stop them,” Coach Butler said. “Our defense keeps us in games, sometimes we just struggle to score.”
Welsh also applauded the Falcons defense and knows it’s the key to success for the rest of the tournament.
“When we’re all moving and talking together it’s hard for people to score on us,” Welsh said. “We showed today – when we’re causing turnovers, when we’re rebounding, we can get easy buckets for ourselves and that helps our offense. And when shots are falling, good things happen.”
Briar Woods (10-13) advances to face Riverside in the semis of the tourney on Wednesday.
–TJ Davis
@Ttown316