Inbounds play

RAL Tip-off first round: West Potomac 71, Madison 67

It was easy to come into Thursday night’s game between West Potomac and Madison expecting good, intriguing individual match-ups. Seniors Khalil Williams-Diggins of West Potomac and Johnny Corish of Madison are two of the area’s most entertaining guards to watch, and Corish, an excellent defender, guarded Williams-Diggins for most of the game. That was just fun to see, especially since the two were AAU teammates on the NOVA Cavaliers over the summer.

What was somewhat unexpected was how close the team match-up ended up being. While Madison has potential for a good year, the Warhawks lost a good amount of scoring from last year’s team and dropped their season opener to Oakton on Tuesday. West Potomac, meanwhile, was returning almost everybody from last year’s regional semi-final squad and blew out Hayfield in its opener on Tuesday.

None of that seemed to matter to the boys from Vienna. The Warhawks battled throughout and came up just short, falling to the Wolverines 71-67 in the first game of the RAL Tournament.

West Potomac raced to an early lead and was up 20-15 after the first quarter, but couldn’t deliver an early knockout blow. Corish (17 points, six assists) was able to get to the lane and dish, often to open three-point shooters. The Warhawks knocked down eight threes on the evening and that helped to keep them close. They trailed by three at halftime and then took a 45-43 lead on a basket by senior Daniel Gerke with three minutes left in the third quarter.

“They did a nice job keeping us on our heels by knocking down open threes and making their foul shots early,” Wolverine coach David Houston III said.

Johnny Corish defends AAU teammate Khalil Williams.
Johnny Corish defends AAU teammate Khalil Williams.

The Warhawks took a lead into the fourth quarter but then West Potomac regained its composure and kicked the energy level up a notch, getting on the boards and trapping and defending with more ferocity. “Our thought was to wear them down, but that proved tougher than I thought,” Houston said. “I thought our constant pressure caused them problems late, causing them to turn the ball over and allowing us to get some easy baskets and also control the tempo. Also our offensive rebounding, which is one of our strengths this year and last, once again helped us out.”

Indeed, the Wolverines not only spread the scoring responsibility around on the night but were active on the glass. All five starters cleared at least five boards, with athletic senior center Idaresit Ekpuk contributing 11. Ekpuk had a key “and one” three-point play on a put-back in the fourth, and his two free throws late effectively sealed the deal for West Potomac.

Williams-Diggins was harassed all night by Corish, but still managed to contribute 13 points and match Corish’s six assists. Senior guard Brandan Lisenby led the Wolverines with 15 points, while sophomore guard Daryl Mackey Jr. and junior guard-forward Duran Etheredge each contributed eight points off the bench.

Coach Houston was pleased with the effort from his team. “My players listened to the adjustments we made and did a solid job. Madison is a solid team that will cause a lot of teams problems. Not many people can line up five guys who can all knock down the deep ball.”

Madison’s coach, Kevin Roller, was also pleased with his team, which is dealing with injuries and still incorporating football players that only ended their season last weekend. “I am happy. We came up on the short end, but what that was was five seniors–five senior [starters] from West Potomac who executed like seniors do in that stretch of the fourth quarter. Give them credit.”

It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but both coaches came away relatively happy, as did the fans. West Potomac-Madison would be a match-up we’d love to see again come February and the playoffs.

–Chris Jollay

–stats are unofficial

WEST POTOMAC FG FT TP RBS AST
WILLIAMS-DIGGINS 5-8 2-4 13 7 6
LISENBY 5-11 4-6 15 5 2
DA’JON BELLFIELD 3-5 0-1 6 5 0
DA’JUAN BELLFIELD 2-6 4-6 8 7 0
EKPUK 3-6 7-9 13 11 1
MUNSON 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
MAZZOCCOLI 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
MACKEY, JR. 3-5 1-2 8 1 0
ETHEREDGE 2-4 2-2 8 0 0
TOTALS 23-46 20-30 71 36 9
MADISON FG FT TP RBS AST
DARAB 2-3 0-0 6 0 0
JORGENSON 2-12 0-0 6 3 3
GERKE 4-7 0-0 9 5 0
CORISH 7-17 3-4 17 5 6
HUGIE 6-10 2-4 16 3 1
Pepe Conforti 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Johnson 0-2 0-2 0 3 0
Hecht 1-2 1-2 3 0 1
Finney 2-3 5-8 10 1 0
TOTALS 24-56 11-20 67 20 11
WEST POTOMAC THREES: Williams 1-2, Lisenby 1-2, Ekpuk 0-1, Mackey 1-1, Etheredge 2-3
MADISON THREES: Darab 2-3, Jorgenson 2-6, Gerke 1-3, Corish 0-4, Hugie 2-5,
Finney 1-1, Hecht 0-1, Johnson 0-2

One comment

  1. Sorry I missed this game. I look forward to watching the Warhawks this season. Warhawks will improve throughout the season and I am sure they will be a team to watch for in the regionals come February.

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