The basketball battle for first place in the Liberty District, with three Arlington boys varsity teams included in the chase, is getting interesting.
Heading into Jan. 20 action, the McLean Highlanders were atop the standings with a 5-0 league mark, and Arlington’s Yorktown Patriots were tied for second at 4-1 and 11-4 overall.
Arlington’s Wakefield Warriors (10-5 overall) were in fourth at 2-3 in the district with Arlington’s Washington-Liberty Generals (8-7) standing 1-4, having lost three straight Liberty contests by close scores.
Many games in the district have been decided by narrow margins, no matter the records of the teams. So the potential exists for the standings to change in coming weeks.
Yorktown snapped a two-game losing streak with a strong 78-63 victory over the visiting Langley Saxons the night of Jan. 16. The contest was close until the Patriots built a 12-point lead, 59-47, at the end of the third quarter.
With the game tied at 4 early in the first quarter, Yorktown took the lead for good at 6-4 on a running one-handed jumper in the lane by senior guard Jack Coulam. The Patriots were ahead 20-15 at the end of the first.
The 78 points were the second most Yorktown has scored in a game this season.
Coulam led Yorktown in scoring with 22 points, and he made six three-pointers. He scored 17 in the second quarter.
Walton Butler scored 17, James Davis had 12 points and six rebounds, and Sam Roosa scored eight.
“We wanted to play with more urgency and to keep the pressure up for the entire game on both sides of the ball,” Yorktown coach Joe Keimig told ARLnow. “I thought we did a much better job in transition and moving the ball around compared to our previous two games.”
In a recent 45-38 district home loss to the Marshall Statesmen, also tied for second, Yorktown led 16-9 at halftime and 30-27 after three quarters, but scored just eight points in the final stanza.
The 38 points were Yorktown’s fewest in a game this winter.
Coulam, a starter and one of the team’s top scorers, did not play in a non-district 56-39 road loss to the Oakton Cougars prior to the Marshall game.
In other Jan. 16 games for Arlington teams, host Wakefield lost to McLean, 67-56, and Washington-Liberty fell to visiting Marshall, 53-44.
All three Arlington teams played home games on the same day, Jan. 16. That’s doesn’t happen often.
Wakefield had the chance to defeat McLean, as the Warriors shot well early in the game, leading 19-17 at the end of the first period. But the Warriors did not shoot as well over the final three periods. The squad trailed 32-31 at halftime, and never held a lead in the second half.
In the third period, Wakefield made just 2 of 14 shots from the floor and just 4 of 10 free throws. McLean built leads of eight and nine points in that quarter.
McLean was helped by making 10 three-pointers and getting some key offensive rebounds.
Wakefield was led in scoring by senior guard Dyson Beaty with 20 points augmented by three steals.
Senior guard Jeremiah Poole scored 16 and made four threes. He also had six rebounds, six assists and four steals.
Also for Wakefield, Tyson Ordenes scored 11 and had five rebounds, and Tre’Sean Evans had seven points and four boards.
In a non-district game the next day — Jan. 17 — at Fairfax High School in the annual eight-team Martin Luther King Invitational, Wakefield led most of the game but lost to Oakton (12-2) by a 53-48 score.
Oakton took the lead for good at 48-46 with 2:50 to play in the game, followed by a couple of Wakefield turnovers.
“We had that game, then we didn’t finish,” Wakefield coach Tony Bentley said. “We had the turnovers and missed too many layups in both games [McLean and Oakton]. We have do cut down on turnovers, and make more free throws, too.”
Beaty scored 12 and had two steals against Oakton; Ordenes scored nine; Zak Amadou added seven with five rebounds; Rayvon Hackley had six points and six boards; and Poole had six points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals.
In Jan. 16 play, Washington-Liberty led visiting Marshall 27-26 at halftime, but scored just 18 points in the second half.
In its previous game, Washington-Liberty lost to the host McLean Highlanders, 54-53, in the final second after leading 30-22 at halftime.
The Generals took a 53-52 lead against McLean with 20 seconds to play on two foul shots by Adam Dodini. A McLean player then made a short baseline jumper in the final second to end the scoring and win, 54-53.
Washington-Liberty lost to the host Herndon Hornets, 54-48, in district play prior to playing McLean.
In a non-district game Jan. 17, Washington-Liberty defeated West Potomac, 48-40, to snap a three-game losing streak.
