The Washington Post - 22.02.2020

saturday, february 22 , 2020. the washington post eZ M2 d5

after missing the previous four

games with a right foot injury,

had two close-range looks at the

rim, but he couldn’t convert ei-

ther attempt.

The failed sequence cemented

the loss and epitomized the Wiz-

ards’ poor shooting night.

Though Beal was responsible for

many of the bricks — only two of

his nine makes came outside the

paint as he went 1 for 10 from

beyond the three-point arc — the

Wizards shot 38.7 percent from

It’s not as if the Wizards didn’t

play hard enough. Washington

players spent the closing minutes

following Beal’s lead and throw-

ing themselves to the floor, claw-

ing for loose balls and angrily

protesting for whistles — even

during the middle of the play.

Davis Bertans did so, waving his

hand dismissively at an official

during a late offensive possession

for Cleveland.

But that sort of passion — or

panic — only appeared when real-

ity set in that the Cavaliers

( 15-40), playing their first game

under J.B. Bickerstaff, could win

the night.

The frenzied energy didn’t l ead

to production when it mattered:

With possession of the ball while

trailing 109 -106 with less than

90 seconds to play, the Wizards

had four chances to tie the score

or come within a point. Instead,

Bertans missed a pull-up three-

pointer. Hachimura secured the

rebound and sent the ball out to

Smith, but he could not knock

down an open three. And then

Thomas Bryant, back on the court

BY JAKE LOURIM

A year ago, near the end of last

season, Coach Joe reed pulled his

players together and told them

how life would be for h is Yorktown

boys’ basketball team going for-

ward. The Patriots were going all-

in on “The System,” a philosophy

driven by countless three-point

shots, full-scale substitutions and

a dizzying full-court press.

There was no turning back:

Yorktown would live or die by the

new order. T hat was 2 019, but t his

season-long revolution must be

viewed through that conversa-

tion.

There is only one rule: You can-

not pass up an open shot. reed

benches players who pass up open

shots. No exceptions.

Plenty of players would hesitate

at the sight of a 25-foot shot and a

three-point deficit with five sec-

onds left i n the d istrict final. Chris

Short did not flinch and instead

slipped into a fairy tale. on the

strength of his three-pointer, the

underdog Patriots continued an

implausible comeback and then

beat South Lakes in overtime, 70-

67, in reston to claim their first

district title since 2008.

Yorktown (20-5) changed ev-

erything about i tself in 1 2 months,

but not even those inside the pro-

gram could have written a script

like this. Short was a junior varsity

point guard last season. He has

come off the bench all season. He

may not have been in the game

with seconds left i f two teammates

hadn’t fouled out. Not even he

could c omprehend it afterward.

“It’s the best feeling” and an

ear-to-ear grin were all he could

muster.

“Holy crap,” reed m arveled.

In overtime, senior Aidan

Stroup hit a three-pointer as piv-

otal as Short’s, putting Yorktown

ahead 69 -67 with 1:08 left. South

Lakes (20-4) then needed to foul,

and Short, a baby-faced sopho-

more, found himself with the ball

again. Two Seahawks lunged for

him. The whistle blew, sending

Short to the free throw line. He

smiled, all of a sudden comfort-

able amid the c haos.

He m ade 1 of 2 shots to push his

team’s l ead t o three a nd then, with

one second left, grabbed a loose

ball off a missed shot and

slammed it off an opposing player

out of bounds to give Yorktown

possession. Liam Anderson hoist-

ed the b all toward the c eiling after

he caught the inbound pass. Stu-

dents rushed the court and lifted

Short onto t heir shoulders.

Yorktown accepted the trophy,

and o ut came a l adder a nd a pair of

scissors. Those displays of giddi-

ness in which winning teams cut

down the nets are usually so pol-

ished. But first you have to learn

how to cut them. S hort went first.

“Never in my life did I think I’d

be standing on a ladder, cutting

down a net,” h e said.

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liberty district boys’ basketball final

Short is an unlikely hero

as Patriots claim crown

Yorktown 70,

south lakes 67 (ot)

BY RYAN MCFADDEN

Landon sophomore Will Law-

rence has wowed opposing play-

ers and coaches with his offensive

skill set throughout the season.

During the mid-Atlantic Prep

Hockey League championship

game against St. John’s on friday

night, Lawrence only needed one

play to show why he’s one of the

area’s best.

Just 13 seconds into overtime,

Lawrence sped down the ice at

Gardens Ice House in Laurel to

score the winning goal, giving the

Bears a 3-2 victory and their fifth

mAPHL title.

“[Lawrence] is so explosive,”

Landon Coach David Erickson

said. “You can’t shut your eyes for

a second. He’s a pure goal scorer,

and he’s going to do it at the next

level.”

It was the first time since 2016

that Landon won the mAPHL

championship. The trip to the

title was wild for the Bears, the

Interstate Athletic Conference

champions: All three of their

games in the mAPHL tourna-

ment were 3-2 overtime wins.

“Two championships in one

year — who would’ve thought?”

Lawrence said.

Landon (16-2-2) caught a break

in the second period when senior

forward ryan Giles skated down

the right side and got the puck

past St. John’s goalie Chase Horn-

becker for a 1-0 lead. The Bears

found the net again late in the

period. Junior Kyle radimer di-

rected the puck to teammate JH

Lages, who zipped it into the net

to make it 2-0.

St. John’s (22-9-2) was without

junior forward Quinn Kennedy,

the mAPHL player of the year, but

the Cadets still had enough weap-

ons to keep Landon on its toes.

But the Bears stayed strong de-

fensively, limiting St. John’s to six

shots on goal in the first two

periods.

The Cadets made it interesting

when senior To mmy Lokken

scored with under 10 minutes to

go. Landon then controlled the

pace until St. John’s senior An-

drew DePoy evened the score

with 14.7 seconds remaining,

forcing overtime.

Landon didn’t flinch, and Law-

rence delivered in overtime.

“To their credit, they were

mentally tough,” Erickson said.

“It’s beyond words because it’s

difficult when you are tied that

late and refocus yourself and

accomplish what needs to be

done.”

Lawrence was Landon’s top

goal scorer and point collector

throughout the season. The

speedy forward had four hat

tricks, but those will never top the

lone goal he scored against

St. John’s.

“This is easily the best,” he said.

“A n overtime goal in the champi-

onship — you can’t beat it.”

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mid-atlantic prep hockey league final

Lawrence’s quick strike

makes Bears champions

landon 3,

st. john’s 2 (ot)

BY MICHAEL ERRIGO

All night, there had been con-
stant noise at the Virginia High
School League’s gymnastics
championships: music from a DJ,
shouts of encouragement from
one teammate to another and
bursts of applause from different
cheering sections as teams tack-
led the vault, floor, beam or bars.
But the Patriot High gym grew
quieter when the end of the
evening approached.
As t he clock approached 9 p.m.
friday, the noise started to die
down as teams wrapped up and
anticipation for the announce-
ment of the final scoring grew.
The gymnasts from freedom-
South r iding sat in the bleachers,
huddled together for what
seemed like forever as the last
group of opponents wrapped up.
While Coach Laura Wrighte
quietly added up her team’s
scores and wondered whether
they would be good enough,
sophomore Kelly fangyen sat
with her teammates, feeling sur-
prisingly calm. The young group
faced a high bar friday: The
Eagles were looking to make it
three state team titles in a row.
But fangyen knew that the hard
part was over.
“It kind of felt good,” she said
of the wait. “ I knew that we did all
that we could. There was n o point
in stressing.”
minutes later, the Eagles were
sitting in a circle and holding
hands as they were crowned
champions again. Then they

leaped to their feet and formed a

mass of hugs.

freedom won with a score of

150.425. Heritage (147.450) was

the runner-up in Class 1-5, fol-

lowed by Deep run (142.675). It

was the best performance the

E agles had ever given, beating

their team score record for the

second time this season.

on Thursday, when the only

thing ahead of her team was the

state meet, Wrighte spoke to her

gymnasts about f ocus. She want-

ed them to live in the moment

friday, not think about previous

championships or opposing

scores.

“I also told them that they were

ready,” Wrighte said.

fangyen led the way, earning

the team’s highest score in all

four categories. Her 9.900 on the

vault was the best of her high

school career. other key scores

included a 9.700 from junior

riley Waldrop on vault, a 9.5 25

from sophomore Liliana Gines

on balance beam and a 9.400

from sophomore Emily Hyun on

floor.

“Carrying on the l egacy, there’s

a lot o f pressure involved in that,”

Hyun said.

“But our coaches and our

teammates keep us ready.”

In Class 6, robinson was

r unner-up to ocean Lakes. The

rams, winners of the past two

titles, tallied a score of 145.250;

ocean Lakes turned in a 152.00.

Washington-Liberty (144.325)

was third.

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Virginia gymnastics championships

Freedom-South Riding

wins third straight title

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gordon Hayward scored

29 points, Daniel Theis had ca-

reer highs of 25 points and 16 re-

bounds, and the Boston Celtics

stayed strong out of the all-star

break, holding off the minnesota

Timberwolves, 127 -117, on friday

night in minneapolis.

Jalen Brown scored 25 points

and Jayson Ta tum had 28 points

and 11 rebounds as fellow all-star

Kemba Walker sat out because of

a minor knee injury.

marcus Smart had 10 points

and a season-high 10 assists as the

primary point guard in Walker’s

place, helping the Celtics win for

the ninth time in their past

10 games. They’re 1^1 / 2 games be-

hind the defending NBA champi-

on To ronto raptors for second

place in the suddenly stacked

Eastern Conference.

malik Beasley scored 27 points,

D’Angelo russell had 18 points

and a season-high 13 assists and

Juancho Hernangomez added a

season-high 17 points for minne-

sota, which played without center

Karl-Anthony To wns, who will sit

out at least two more weeks be-

cause of an injured left wrist that

the team announced friday is

broken.

l raPTOrs 118, sUNs 10 1:

Host Toronto, which had its fran-

chise-record 15-game winning

streak snapped in its last game

before the all-star break, got

37 points and 12 rebounds from

Pascal Siakam to beat Phoenix.

The raptors have won eight

straight home games.

Devin Booker scored 21 points

and DeAndre Ayton had 17 points

and 10 rebounds for Phoenix,

which lost for the seventh time in

nine games.

l THUNdEr 113, NUGGETs

10 1: Chris Paul scored 29 points,

Steven Adams had 19 points and

17 rebounds, and host oklahoma

City beat Denver.

The Thunder h as won 11 of its

past 14 games.

Nikola Jokic scored 32 points

on 12-for- 15 shooting for the Nug-

gets, who entered the night with

the second-best record in the

Western Conference.

l MaVEriCKs 122, MaGiC

106: Luka Doncic had 33 points,

10 rebounds and eight assists,

and Dallas cruised past orlando

to improve to 19-8 on the road

this season.

maxi Kleber added a career-

high 26 points off the bench for

the mavericks.

Evan fournier had a team-high

28 points for orlando, which

made just 9 of 43 three-point

attempts and shot 39 percent

overall from the field.

l PaCErs 106, KNiCKs 98 :

T. J. Warren had 27 points and

eight rebounds, leading Indiana

past host New York.

Indiana has won two straight

after a six-game losing streak.

Bobby Portis scored 19 points

and rJ Barrett had 17 for the

Knicks, who have lost three in a

row.

New York’s leading scorer, Ju-

lius randle, shot 2 for 9 and

finished with seven points and

seven rebounds.

l sPUrs 113, Jazz 104: In

Salt Lake City, Dejounte murray

had 23 points and seven rebounds

in S an Antonio’s victory over

Utah.

Demar Derozan added

18 points and seven assists for the

Spurs.

rudy Gobert had 18 points and

14 r ebounds for the Jazz. Emman-

uel mudiay also scored 18 points.

Clippers-Lakers rescheduled

The game between the Los

Angeles Lakers and Clippers that

was postponed following Kobe

Bryant’s death was rescheduled

for April 9.

The game was originally sched-

uled for Jan. 28, two days after

Bryant and eight others died in a

helicopter crash in Calabasas, Ca-

lif.

nba roundup

Balanced Boston outlasts

shorthanded Minnesota

CeltICs 127,

tIMBerwolVes 117

andy clayton-king/associated press

d’angelo russell, right, recently acquired by Minnesota in a trade,

had 18 points and a season-high 13 assists in the loss to Boston.

nick Wass/associated press

The wizards’ Bradley Beal flung himself around against the Cavaliers, but he couldn’t find his shot, going 1 for 10 f rom three-point range.

the field.

“We started the game, and the

ball was flying around, and we’re

making shots. Then we couldn’t

make shots,” Coach Scott Brooks

said. “Those last three quarters, I

don’t think they were bad looks. I

think some nights that’s going to

happen. In the fourth quarter,

actually the last three quarters,

the ball just didn’t go in for us.”

Washington scored 41 points in

the opening quarter and led by 16

early in the second. Instead of

pouring it on, it allowed Cleve-

land to hang around. Although

the Cavaliers are one of the rare

teams that rank in the bottom

seven in both defensive and offen-

sive rating, they found a rhythm

against the Wizards’ defense.

“Even in the first half, I thought

we were playing hard but we just

didn’t have a purpose,” Bicker-

staff said. “The second half we

kind of settled down [and] start-

ed playing harder and with a

purpose, and then our defense got

much better. That’s what cata-

pulted us to the win.”

Around the midway point of

the fourth quarter, Cleveland

went on a scoring binge to surge

ahead. Tristan Thompson tied the

score at 9 5. Garland followed with

a three-pointer, and after Bryant

missed two free throws, Sexton

got past Hachimura. When Dante

Exum scored over a leaping Ber-

tans, the Cavaliers went up 102 -97

with 5:25 remaining.

The Wizards had chances to get

back into the game, but much like

their playoff aspirations, those

chances kept slipping away.

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little needed to be explained.
Also, after a loss so demoralizing,
m aking the playoffs should be the
last thing the Wizards, in ninth
place in the East, want to talk
about.
Not when Cleveland rallies
from a 16-point deficit on your
home floor. The Cavaliers had
been 0-81 when trailing by at l east
that many over the past two sea-
sons, according to ESPN Stats &
Info.
And when the Cavaliers’ young
backcourt of Collin Sexton and
Darius Garland outscores the
Wizards’ veteran pairing of Beal
and Ish Smith while winning the
fourth-quarter duel, maybe a
first-round matchup against the
NBA-best milwaukee Bucks
shouldn’t be the goal.
Sexton scored 14 of his
25 points in the final quarter.
Garland, a rookie who played on
Beal’s former AAU team, made
both of his three-point attempts
in the period. much like Beal,
Smith had a poor shooting night
(2 for 12), and he finished with
five points.
It was an opportunity lost: The
eighth-place orlando magic
( 24-32) fell to the Dallas maver-
icks, and the Wizards (20-34) re-
mained three games out of the
final playoff spot.
“This one hurts coming out of
the all-star break,” Smith said.
“Especially when the teams in
front of you have lost as well. But
there’s still 28 more games. We
got to keep grinding, keep push-
ing.”

wizards from d1

Wizards fall flat vs. last-place Cavaliers

wizards’ next three

at chicago bulls

tomorrow 7nBcsW

vs. milwaukee bucks

Monday7nBcsW

vs. brooklyn nets

Wednesday7nBcsW

Radio: WFED (1500 AM)

cavaliers 113, wizards 10 8

Cleveland ............................ 3229203 2— 113

Washington ........................ 4125212 1— 108

Cleveland Min Fg Ft o-taPFPts

Love 22:32 3-8 1-2 0-1 119

Osman 30:03 5-7 3-40-10 2216

Drummond 21:51 6-11 0-23-12 2312

Garland 36:12 6-11 1-1 1-2 4315

Sexton 34:20 8-177-10 0-2 2425

Thompson 26:00 5-8 0-02-11 4110

Nance Jr. 25:37 5-11 2-3 3-6 2313

Exum 23:47 4-4 1-1 1-1 0210

Porter Jr. 12:54 1-3 1-2 0-1 253

Dellavedova 6:44 0-1 0-0 0-1 000

totals 240 43-8116-2510-47 1924113

Percentages: FG .531, FT .640. 3-Point goals: 11-27, .407

(Osman 3-5, Garland 2-4, Love 2-5, Sexton 2-6, Exum

1-1, Nance Jr. 1-3, Dellavedova 0-1, Drummond 0-1,

Thompson 0-1). team Rebounds: 10. team turnovers: 1.

Blocked shots: 6 (Drummond 2, Porter Jr. 2, Thompson

2). turnovers: 21 (Drummond 7, Porter Jr. 4, Love 3,

Garland 2, Osman 2, Sexton 2, Nance Jr.). steals: 3

(Drummond 2, Osman). technical Fouls: None.

Washington Min Fg Ft o-taPFPts

Bonga 19:51 2-3 1-1 1-2 105

Hachimura 30:10 7-13 2-2 3-7 3217

Mahinmi 16:23 1-3 3-4 3-5 255

Beal 34:19 9-28 7-9 0-3 1426

Smith 29:42 2-12 0-0 1-5 615

Bertans 26:03 2-7 4-5 1-8 2210

Brown Jr. 19:50 5-10 0-0 2-4 2011

Napier 18:18 3-8 0-0 0-1 418

Bryant 16:06 4-7 0-2 5-5 038

Wagner 15:31 2-7 0-0 1-5 144

Robinson 13:47 4-8 0-0 0-2 249

totals 240 41-10617-2317-47 2426108

Percentages: FG .387, FT .739. 3-Point goals: 9-37, .243

(Napier 2-6, Bertans 2-7, Brown Jr. 1-2, Robinson 1-2,

Hachimura 1-3, Smith 1-5, Beal 1-10, Bonga 0-1, Wagner

0-1). team Rebounds: 14. team turnovers: 1. Blocked

shots: 3 (Bryant 2, Bertans). turnovers: 11 (Beal 6,

Mahinmi 2, Bonga, Brown Jr., Wagner). steals: 12 (Beal

3, Brown Jr. 2, Hachimura 2, Mahinmi 2, Smith 2,

Napier). technical Fouls: None.