Sometimes a Senior Night just doesn’t go as planned. There’s big nerves and a lot of emotions. The coach wants to start and play seniors more to honor them, sometimes throwing the team chemistry out of whack. Sometimes the team just loses.
Well, in a big game Thursday night at Thomas Jefferson against Lewis, with third place in the district on the line, everything went about as well as could have been expected for the Colonials. Really, it was an almost perfect evening as TJ enjoyed a 59-30 win.
All eight seniors scored for TJ Coach Frank McNulty and ten players in total.
“Total team effort, everybody contributed, especially on defense helping each other out,” said McNulty.
The offense was good too. TJ shot 46% as a team and drained seven three-pointers on the night. Senior forward Julia Baer led the way with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while senior guard Ruby Diao also had a sensational all-around game with 10 points and six assists. The offense flowed well through senior forward Elsie Honny (three assists), especially early.
Senior guard Abeni Smith added 11 points and three assists, but her most important task may have been on defense guarding Lewis star forward Donnie Goodwin. When she was doing that TJ rolled, taking a 20-7 lead in the first quarter. With Smith on the bench for most of the second quarter Goodwin and the Lancers closed the gap to single digits, but when Smith returned to defend Goodwin for most of the second half, Goodwin didn’t score again.
“She did a great job,” said McNulty of Smith. “She played hard, she’s our go-to defender.”
“I was very happy because tonight’s our Senior Night and this is what we’ve all been working toward the whole season. I’m really proud of how we did tonight,” said Smith.
“This is the second time we’ve played this team,” she added. “The last time we lost by five and were missing a couple key players. So this time everyone was thinking we’re going to have to get them back and I think we did. The energy was all there so I was really happy.”
It definitely was, even from the players that came off the bench. Senior Sarah Coppenbarger had eight points off the bench and senior Zoe Lowe, the last senior to enter the game who only played in the second half, had six points and four rebounds.
With the win the Colonials (7-5, 7-9) moved closer to locking up the three seed in the National District, important for that district tournament and perhaps beyond in the Occoquan Regional Tournament.
“If we just keep playing like we did tonight with total team effort and total team defense we’ll get our shots,” said McNulty of his team’s prospects in the postseason.
“They’re such a good unit and they like each other, they love playing with one another. It’s a pleasure to coach them because it’s so fun to be around them.”
The loss was disappointing for Lewis, but the Lancers (6-6, 8-13) are having a solid season themselves and have plenty of time to rebound. Goodwin led the way with 13 points, while fellow junior Nora Ahmed added nine points and six rebounds.
–Chris Jollay