monday, february 24 , 2020. the washington post eZ su d7
high schools
BY KATE YANCHULISGeorgetown Prep junior Kyon-
te Hamilton claimed the National
Prep championship Saturday in
the 220-pound weight class with
a 13-6 win against Kolby Frank-
lin, a s ophomore from Pennsylva-
nia’s Wyoming Seminary.
With the victory, t he nationally
ranked wrestler added another
accomplishment to a season full
of them. Hamilton also has a
Maryland state title and an Inter-
state Athletic Conference title, as
well as first-place finishes in the
Escape the Rock and Beast of the
East tournaments.
Led by freshman Meyer Sha-
piro, who finished second at
126 pounds, Bullis claimed sev-
enth place with 91 points at
National Preps, which took place
at Lehigh University inB ethlehem, Pa.
Entering the season, Bullis
Coach Ali Elias had set his sights
on a top-five finish at National
Preps, but his team lost five
w restlers to season-ending inju-
ries.
Two local wrestlers placed in
the top three of their weight
classes in the debut of the girls’
division at the national tourna-
ment: Good Counsel’s Heidi
Richardson was second at
130 pounds, and Sidwell Friends’
Kate Borkow ski was third at
105 pounds.Virginia Class 5
Freedom-South Riding senior
Jacob Edwards took the Virginia
Class 5 title at 285 pounds with a
5-4 win against John Randolph
Tucker senior Mirvet D udic in the
championship match Saturday at
Rock Ridge.
The Eagles f inished tied for 1 1th
place with 56 points as a team.
Stafford County’s Brooke Point
won t he team title with 178 points.
Thomas Jefferson junior Bri-
anna Ta entered the state tourna-
ment as the first girl to qualify
out of Region 5C. Though she losther first match, 7-6, against
Kempsville freshman Christian
Ballon in the 106-pound weight
class, she won two matches in the
consolation bracket before end-
ing her run with a 5-2 loss to Deep
Run freshman David Simon.
Ta started wrestling as a fresh-
man at Jefferson. With help from
Coach Charles Phillips, she t rans-
lated skills from her martial arts
background to the wrestling mat.
“She had to learn the rules and
the techniques, but she’s a fast
learner,” Phillips said.
Jefferson qualified five wres-tlers for the state tournament
three years after fielding only
seven wrestlers for the season.Virginia Class 4
At the Virginia Class 4 tourna-
ment at Tuscarora High, Heri-
tage-Leesburg finished in 10th
place (53 points), led by a second-
place finish from junior Zachary
Maisus at 113 pounds and a third-
place finish from senior Dominic
Nguyen at 126 pounds.
Fauquier took home the team
championship with 170.5 points.
[email protected]Wrestling roundup
Georgetown Prep’s Hamilton claims national title i n 220-pound weight class
Junior earns another
major crown; Bullis
finishes in seventh placeBY MICHAEL ERRIGOThe Bishop McNamara girls’
basketball team spent last season
chasing St. John’s. The Mustangs
had a strong, senior-led squad,
but they couldn’t seem to get past
the Cadets. They lost to St. John’s
three times: twice in the regular
season and finally, devastatingly,
in the Washington Catholic Ath-
letic Conference championship
game.
Entering S unday’s WCAC s emi-
finals at American University, the
conference landscape h ad shifted.
The No. 5 Mustangs, the tourna-
ment’s t op seed, w ould have to get
past St. John’s one round earlier
than last year. With a younger
roster and star Azzi Fudd still
working her way back from last
spring’s ACL tear, St. John’s had a
different look than McNamara
was used to.
That d idn’t m ake the Mustangs’
46 -41 victory any less sweet.
“We had a bad taste in our
mouth after last year,” Coach
Frank Oliver said. “It fueled our
fire all summer.”
No. 11 St. John’s ( 19-9) got down
early and spent the final three
quarters battling back. It took a
41-40 lead with 2:30 left, but
M cNamara (26-5) scored the final
six points to close out a momen-
tous victory.
“We’re on to tomorrow; that’s
the biggest thing,” senior forward
Madison Scott said. “We got the
job done, and I’m just so proud of
this team.”
Scott, a McDonald’s all-Ameri-
can, played in last year’s champi-onship game with a broken foot.
She was the Mustangs’ emotional
leader Sunday, e ven when she was
relegated to the bench by foul
trouble late in the third quarter.
She finished with 14 points, and
senior forward Liatu King scored
a team-high 16.
“We want to be great, and we
know that St. John’s is a great
program,” Scott said. “We just
kept trying t o beat them, trying to
beat them. We knew we could —
just took us trusting the process.”
In the second girls’ semifinal of
the day, No. 2 Paul VI advanced to
the championship game for the
sixth time in seven years with a
45-29 win over No. 8 Bishop
O’Connell.
The Panthers (29-3), who have
built their success on a stingy
defense this season, held the
Knights (21-6) to 10 or fewer
points in every quarter. They are
seeking their first conference title
since 2016.
“This is a team that’s complete-
ly different than years past,” se-
nior guard Faith Alston said. “We
don’t have a top-50 player in the
country. People might look at our
roster and say, ‘Who’s that?’ It
doesn’t matter. We’re all focused
on the team. We do this together.”
The Mustangs, who last won it
all in 2008, provide an interesting
matchup for the Panthers in the
final, which is at 6 p.m. Monday.
The programs split in the regular
season, with McNamara earning a
17-point win just after New Year’s
and Paul VI winning by 25 in early
February.
“[Monday] night is going to be a
fight,” Alston said. “ We’re going to
come in and play our game and
not worry about what type of
players they have.”
[email protected]Wcac girls’ basketball semifinalsMustangs’ payback win
sets up ‘fight’ vs. Paul VI
mcnamara 46,
st. John’s 41BY MICHAEL ERRIGOLast February, Paul VI guard
Jeremy Roach watched from the
bench as his team let a
d ouble-digit halftime lead over
Gonzaga slip away in a Washing-
ton Catholic Athletic Conference
semifinal. The Duke signee, who
missed all of last season with an
ACL injury, felt helpless as the
Eagles stormed past the Panthers
and then went on to win the
c onference t itle.
On Sunday at A merican Univer-
sity’s Bender Arena, the Panthers
got a rematch, a nd this t ime Roach
stayed far away f rom t he b ench. In
front of a raucous crowd, Roach
put o n a show early and helped the
No. 3 Panthers to a 74-63 victory in
the s emifinals.
“I was just so disappointed I
couldn’t help my team win from
the sideline [last year],” Roach
said. “So the emotions were high
with this one. I knew I couldn’t let
my t eam l ose t his game.”
The McDonald’s all-American
finished w ith 2 4 points as the Pan-
thers advanced to the conference
final f or t he first time since 2 017.
“He’s been amped all season,”
Coach Glenn Farello said. “Every
step that we’ve had in his journey
back, he’s been like that.... It was
really important for him to set the
tone for u s.”
After Paul VI (23-7) took a
1 2-point halftime lead, No. 5 Gon-
zaga (22-10) tried to make history
repeat. The Eagles clawed back
into the g ame and tied the s core at
47 late in the third quarter. ButRoach beat the buzzer with a
jumper to hand his team the lead
heading into the fourth, and the
Panthers never g ave it back.
Paul VI w ill meet No. 1 DeMatha
in Monday’s championship game.
The Stags held off No. 6 St. John’s,
63-50, in the day’s first semifinal.
That game was also a rematch
of last year’s s emifinal, and like the
Paul VI contest, it produced a new
winner. The Stags l ost in 2019 on a
last-second defensive stop by
St. John’s, and they discussed that
outcome before taking the court
Sunday.
“Last year we came in here be-
lieving that we were going to play
on Monday and everyone was go-
ing to move aside and let us go to
Monday,” DeMatha Coach Mike
Jones said. “But that’s not the way
our league works. A very good
team and a very good coach is
clearly not going to let that hap-
pen. So we wanted to emphasize
mentality. It wasn’t a revenge
thing; it was just a help with
p reparation.”
The Stags (29-3) spent most of
the evening with the lead and
showed poise as the Cadets (23-8)
tried t o mount a comeback. Senior
forward Earl Timberlake led the
way with 19 points, and big man
Hunter Dickinson added 1 8.
DeMatha and Paul VI split the
regular season series; the Pan-
thers upset the Stags late in the
season to spoil the latter’s perfect
conference r ecord.
“They’re the best team in our
league, winning the regular sea-
son outright. And they did it in a
dominant fashion, so we have our
work cut out for us,” Farello said.
“We hope t o have some fun t omor-
row n ight.”
[email protected]Wcac boys’ basketball semifinalsHealthy this time, Roach
helps Panthers move on
Paul Vi 74,
gonzaga 63Doug Kapustin for the washington postGeorgetown Visitation bounced back from a 5-6 start to the season to win the Independent School League Class AA girls’ basketball title.
BY KYLE MELNICKAbout a minute after the final
buzzer sounded on Georgetown
Visitation’s 51-38 win over Stone
Ridge in the Independent School
League Class AA championship
game, students stormed George-
town Day School’s court to hug
and celebrate with players. Mo-
ments later, the Cubs grabbed the
league championship banner and
posed for pictures.
This has become a routine fes-
tivity for Georgetown Visitation,
which has won 14 c onsecutive ISL
Class AA titles. There was extra
pep in Sunday afternoon’s cele-
bration, though.
Unlike in past years, the Cubs
struggled during the regular sea-
son and entered the league’s t our-
nament as the fourth seed.
Georgetown Visitation’s journey
to continue its reign atop the ISL
made this title more meaningful
than the others for Coach Mike
McCarthy and his players.
“Everybody counted us out
from when we lost to some teams
we shouldn’t have lost to,” said
forward Ta ylor Webster, who
scored a team-high 13 points.
“But we didn’t. We always knew
that we could do what we were
capable of.”
Though Georgetown Visita-
tion’s seniors say now they were
confident, McCarthy wondered in
December whether his squad
would return to the ISL title
game. The Cubs (18-11) started
5-6, including a loss to Bullis, a
team they usually dominate. For
the first time in 14 years, George-town Visitation failed to claim the
league’s regular season crown.
A factor in Georgetown Visita-
tion’s inconsistency was how
much its conference opponents
improved. Unlike in previous
years, when there were maybe
two contenders, five teams en-
tered this weekend’s tournament
with a legitimate chance to win.
Georgetown Visitation’s turn-
ing point, senior guard Claire
Burke said, was a stern meeting
after the Cubs’ 20-point loss to
Maret on Jan. 30. The team’s
seniors emphasized to the under-
classmen the importance of
Georgetown Visitation’s winning
tradition.
“It was difficult for us because
we’ve sort of been used to [win-
ning],” Burke said. “It hasn’t been
easy, but it’s been second nature
to us to win. We had to put a lot
more into it this season.”Georgetown Visitation began
defending better and taking
smarter shots. The Cubs beat the
league’s t op seed, Sidwell Friends,
in Saturday’s semifinals. But with
his team trailing by 10 points
midway through the third quar-
ter Sunday against Stone Ridge
(20-7), McCarthy told his players
they were performing as they had
in December.
The Cubs responded by dis-
playing their revamped skill, ty-
ing the score early in the final
period and closing out the way
perennial champions typically
do. They scored 10 unanswered
points and allowed just three
baskets in the fourth quarter.
“This team has come further
than any team I’ve coached,”
M cCarthy said. “We came from so
far, and that made it so much
sweeter.”
[email protected]independent school league class aa girls’ basketball final
Cubs’ rocky road leads to 14th championship in row
g. Visitation 51,
stone ridge 38over — a charge on the baseline
that yielded no p oints f or Sidwell
Friends (19-10).
Turnovers can be a misleading
statistic. Te ams limit them by
slowing the game, by avoiding
risky plays or by facing a sagging
defense.
The Lions did none of those
things. They were throwing risky
passes at the backboard and
battling full-court pressure from
Sidwell Friends. And yet they
guarded the ball as if it were achampionship banner.
The best team in school histo-
ry showed up Sunday and played
like it. And with four juniors in
the starting lineup, including
Williams, the Lions might not be
done dominating on one end and
flying high on the other.
“We try to play up-tempo but
with a purpose,” Jones said. “I
always tell our guys, ‘You can
play fast, but it doesn’t mean you
have to shoot fast.’ ”
[email protected]will newton for the washington post
TJ Gadsden, right, and his St. Andrew’s teammates claimed the
school’s second MAC championship and its first since 20 15.BY JAKE LOURIMSpencer Hayes and Benny
W illiams met at a DeMatha bas-
ketball camp when they were
9 or 10. They did not go to the
same school until last season,
when Williams arrived at St. An-
drew’s.
How do you quickly find
chemistry in that environment?
It helps to have boundless talent.
“It just comes naturally,”
Hayes said. “I know he’s a five-
star [recruit], so I just find him,
throw it anywhere at the rim
pretty much, and he goes and
gets it.”
St. Andrew’s outlasted Sidwell
Friends, 50-42, to win the Mid-
Atlantic Athletic Conference
championship game Sunday at
Maret. All the while, Hayes and
Williams played their own two-
man game, incapable of being
slowed down.
Four times — once in each
quarter and conveniently at the
biggest points of the game — the
6-foot-8 Williams roamed
around the basket and gave
Hayes a quick nod. It w as a subtle
signal. When Hayes saw it, he
lobbed a pass somewhere in the
vicinity of the rim; Williams
grabbed it, contorted his body
and flicked the ball i n for a layup.
“I’m personally a little bit of a
playmaker,” said Hayes, who fin-
ished with five assists. “When
I’m a playmaker and I get some-
body like Benny who can also
make plays, we just come togeth-
er.”
Williams, who had 15 points
on 6-for-7 shooting, guessed they
ran back that play twice every
game this season. A few extra
momentum shifts lifted No. 8
St. Andrew’s (24-4) to its second
MAC title and its first since 2015.
It all starts with defense,
Coach Kevin Jones told his play-
ers before he sent them out for
the fourth quarter with a seven-
point lead. It started with de-
fense, but it did not end there.
The Lions m ade all the plays they
needed, including those four
from Hayes to Williams.
In the first 20 minutes, as it
built an 11-point lead, St. An-
drew’s committed just one turn-mac boys’ basketball final
Behind two-man game,
Lions roar to the crown
st. andrew’s 50,
sidwell friends 42