Potomac School outlasts MAC rival Flint Hill, 73-68

Friday night at Potomac School the Panthers got 19 points from senior Khalil Williams and 17 points from freshman Akim Iscandari off the bench to defeat Flint Hill, 73-68.

Rarely is any game between the Route 123 rivals ever an easy win, and this game was no exception. In the first quarter Flint Hill starters Nate Pabis, Khaleel Abdullah, and Doyle Brown all picked up two fouls. Already down forward Quin Gorman to injury, the Huskies appeared ripe to get blitzed by the home team.

That wasn’t what happened. Buoyed by the three-point shooting of Stephen Kennedy and the inside-out scoring prowess of Gibraltar Coleman, Flint Hill did more than just hang around. In fact, the Huskies led for most of the first three quarters, including a 38-34 lead at halftime. Coach Rico Reed’s team got solid bench minutes from a number of players, and used defensive pressure to keep the Panthers off-balance.

The third quarter saw Flint Hill’s starters return from the bench, but also saw a far better prepared Potomac School team step up.

“We took care of the ball better,” set Potomac School coach Levi Franklin. “The biggest thing was our guards were trying to cross, cross, cross, instead of driving straight lines. We’ll work on it–we’ve worked on so many other things we’re gonna fix that too.”

Williams had a couple of threes in the first half, but the 6’5″ guard did all his damage at the rim and at the free throw line in the second half as his team overtook the visitors near the end of the third quarter. His driving lay-up late in the fourth gave the Panthers their biggest lead of the game, 67-59.

“Khalil is just tough. When he’s doing it the right way he’s very tough to guard,” Franklin said. “His shot’s not going for him sometimes, I tell him to put it on the floor. But the biggest thing is, I want straight-line drives.”

Chuckling, he added, “They [the team] watch too much Allen Iverson back in the day.”

The freshman Iscandari gave his team a big lift off the bench, helping to get past the Husky pressure and often execute a straight-line drive the length of the court directly to the basket. Iscandari only missed one shot and was perfect from the free throw line. Despite being under six feet, he was one of his team’s leading rebounders as well.

“He’s gonna be pretty good…he can do no wrong for me right now because he’s a freshman,” said Franklin of Iscandari. “He’s so young…but his game is really coming along.”

The Panthers (3-1, 10-7) got ample support from others as well. 6’7″ junior forward Elijah Flowers had 12 points and eight rebounds. Senior Tobe Chuke and sophomore EJ Schneeberg had eight points apiece, while senior guard Cam Franklin added seven points.

Kennedy buried five three-pointers en route to 23 points for the Huskies (1-4. 7-10), who will get another crack at their rivals at home later this year. Coleman, who didn’t have a great night from beyond the arc but was still almost unstoppable inside, finished with 20 points.

–Chris Jollay

all stats are unofficial