Just like the first time they met this season, the Yorktown Patriots girls team came away on the losing end of a low-scoring basketball game to the Langley Saxons.
First-place Langley rallied in the second half, as it had a few weeks earlier, to defeat host Yorktown, 38-30, in the low-scoring Feb. 10 Liberty District showdown.
The loss ended Yorktown’s four-game win streak.
Langley won the initial meeting of the season, 38-29, in what was also a back-and-forth clash.
“It was the same script exactly,” first-year Yorktown coach Jessica Turgon told ARLnow. “The story can be written the same.”
With one game remaining in the regular season, Yorktown has an 11-8 overall record and 6-5 district mark, which has the Patriots tied for third place. Langley (21-1) will finish first in the standings with a 12-0 mark.
In the Feb. 10 contest, there were four ties and 10 lead changes. Yorktown led at halftime, 18-15. The score was tied at 26 after three periods, and then Langley scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to take the lead for good.
The Saxons hit some big shots and controlled a deliberate tempo in the final period, holding Yorktown to just four points and only five shots from the floor. The Patriots didn’t score in the final quarter until 2:33 remained in the game.
“Langley plays in-your-face tough defense all four quarters,” Turgon said.
Yorktown was hurt by turnovers throughout the game, with a total of 21.
“Our defense was good, too, but we didn’t score enough,” Turgon said. “We needed to score 40 points.”
Yorktown’s leading scorers in the loss were Ainsley Lomas and Olivia Shiplett, with 10 points each. Lomas also had three assists and Shiplett five rebounds and a blocked shot.
Elizabeth Porter had five points, five rebounds and two assists, and Nora Langley scored four with six rebounds and two blocks.
Eleanor Mahshie, one of Yorktown’s leading scorers, was held to one point and took just four shots against Langley’s tight defense.
One of Yorktown’s wins during its four-game winning streak was a Feb. 5 42-30 victory over Marshall, also tied for third. In the victory, Shiplett led the Patriots with 17 points and 14 rebounds and Mahshie scored eight points to go with two assists and three steals.
Lomas added nine points and two steals. Lomas, who was on the district’s all-defensive team last year, locked down Marshall’s leading scorer Anne Hall. She finished with just three points.
Hall had scored 25 points in the teams’ first meeting during Lomas’ six-week absence with an ankle sprain.
Marshall defeated the Patriots, 39-30, in their earlier meeting on Jan. 13.
In another win, Yorktown jumped out to an 18-5 lead in defeating the Wakefield Warriors, 63-48, in an all-Arlington meeting. It was Yorktown’s second win over Wakefield this season.
Shiplett had 17 points; Mahshie scored 13; Lomas had seven with four assists; and Langley had five points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
In a 58-42 victory over Woodgrove, Yorktown held the high-school Wolverines to 16 points below their game average. Mahshie scored 21 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Shiplett had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Langley had 10 points and Porter added four points, six rebounds and four assists.
“That was a good win over Woodgrove,” Turgon said. “There are a lot of positives with our team. This team has grown a lot with a lot of maturity. A lot of different players are making meaningful contributions.”
Yorktown also downed the Herndon Hornets, 46-29, during its winning streak. Shiplett had 21 points and 14 rebounds. Mahshie scored 10 with seven rebounds, Porter added six points and as many rebounds, and Lomas had four points, six rebounds and three assists.
Yorktown will enter the postseason with one or two more wins than it had in the last regular season, depending on the outcome of Friday night’s game.
Yorktown will be the No. 3 or 4 seed in next week’s district tournament and could play Langley again. The Patriots also could face the No. 2 seed and Arlington rival Washington-Liberty, which has also defeated Yorktown twice in regular-season play.
Turgon said her team welcomes the opportunity to play either team again.
