South Lakes knew what it was getting into, scheduling a gauntlet of opponents this year as its senior core set its sights on having a “final great ride.”
The Seahawks, sitting No. 10 in NOVAhoops’ boys rankings, opened the season at defending region champion South County, then hosted a two-day Readers are Leaders Tournament with Battlefield, Osbourn and Herndon.
South Lakes passed the early December test, sweeping all three after Friday’s 62-49 win over Battlefield (2-1).
Senior Nate Owen led a balanced attack with 15 points and fellow seniors Colin Luongo scored 14 and point guard Kyle Tang added nine. Tang’s five straight points to close the half were pivotal, helping to rebuff the upset-minded Bobcats. Seniors Sam Cooley and EJ Finney also played important supporting roles.
For the two games, the Seahawks trailed for only the first 90 seconds of the Battlefield game, relying on its pressure defense to set the tone.
Owen, who had 10 points in the fourth quarter, said, “Right now, this is not the best team we can be. We have a lot we can improve on. And to be 3-0, so far, that shows how much better we can become. This was a quality win. It’s nice to be at home, playing back-to-back, but the fatigue of the game was a bit of a factor in the second half. It’s a mentality thing. It starts with our pressure defense and finding the right shots to take on offense. We were up 10 at the half, but we weren’t satisfied with that.”
“For the seniors, this is our last ride. We’ve been playing together for a long time; we’re not just great teammates, we’re great friends.”
@SLSeahawksBball senior Nate Owen talks about sweeping first 3 games of season in the first week: at South County, and home to Osbourn and tonight’s win over Battlefield. @novahoopsCom pic.twitter.com/0JOQeq7zKe
— paulbergeron3 (@PaulBergeron3) December 4, 2021
Junior Hasan Hammad led Battlefield with 16 points. His team cut South Lakes’ double-digit, first-half lead to 32-27 with 50 seconds left in the second quarter, but then a bucket and three-point play by Tang gave the Seahawks a 10-point cushion at intermission.
Battlefield struggled to score in the second half, managing just six points in the first 10+ minutes while South Lakes built a 50-33 advantage.
“It’s been a tough week, playing three games in four days,” Seahawks coach Mike Desmond said. “But I thought [vs. Battlefield] we were the most focused out of all of them. With a road game at South County on Tuesday, there were some first-game jitters. On Thursday against Osbourn, there was some showing off by our guys for their friends, playing at home. [Friday], we ignored the noise and each guy did their job.”
“When our guys and the ball are moving on offense, we’re hard to stop. When we aren’t, our bad offense can turn into the other team’s best offense [in transition].
“We tell the kids that minutes matter. And we got good minutes from some of our freshman (Jordan Scott and Sol Vita) and our sophomores (Aiden Billings and Jordan Corry). This was junior Cody Weitzman’s first game (since football season) and he came in for 30 seconds here and there and played good, hard defense for us.”
In the earlier game, Osbourn improved to 2-1 with a 71-40 win over Herndon (0-3).
Sophomore Tey Barbour, an emerging 6-foot-4 wing guard, led the Eagles with 23 points in only three quarters’ work. Trailing 6-5, Osbourn used a 21-2 run in the first half to take control of the game. The Hornets used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to pull within 12, but could get no closer.
Junior guard Sean Garcia led Herndon with eight points and senior Aiden Grine and junior Dayvon Demby each had seven.
Barbour played varsity as a freshman and grew two inches since then. He also improved this past summer while with his AAU team Vicktory Life.
“Success for us comes from our defense,” Barbour said. “We have to hustle and play hard. I’m comfortable with my role on this team. Scoring opportunities can come to me when we run our offense.”
Barbour hit 17 of 19 free-throw attempts over the two games. He scored 26 points in Thursday’s loss to South Lakes.
Eagles’ senior guard Simon Walakira said the strong start on Friday made a difference. “In our first two games, we started slow. [Friday], we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Walakira said that Osbourn’s offense is effective because, “Tey does not try to do his own thing. When we run our offense, he can find shots out of it.”
Eagles coach Rocky Carter called Barbour “a skilled young man” who continues to get better.
“My job this year to help him learn the game – and its nuances – even more. He’s working on not only reading what his defender is doing, but also what the next defender on the floor is doing, and the next one. When he can do that, he’ll be a really dangerous player. He’ll get there. He’s such a smart, humble player; he has a 4.2 grade-point average.”
–Paul Bergeron
@PaulBergeron3