Highlighted by a couple of rivalry games, the regular season ended the night of Friday the 13th for Arlington’s public high school varsity basketball teams.
Next up for those six girls and boys squads are this week’s Liberty District tournaments, beginning with quarterfinal action the night of Tuesday, Feb. 17.
In that competition, the Washington-Liberty Generals (18-4, 10-2) on the girls side and Yorktown Patriots (18-5, 10-2) on the boys will be the No. 2 seeds. The other Arlington teams are seeded from the No. 3 to No. 7 spots.
In final regular-season action Feb. 13, there was an all-Arlington girls and boys doubleheader hosted by the Wakefield Warriors against the W-L squads.
The Washington-Liberty girls won big in the evening’s opener, 67-22, with the Wakefield boys (13-9, 5-7) taking the nightcap, 53-40, as W-L fell to 10-12, 3-9.
With the win, the Wakefield boys secured the tournament’s No. 4 seed.
Leading the W-L girls in scoring against Wakefield in the Generals’ fourth straight win were Kathryn Wagener with 13 points, sisters Eve and Anna Jungman with 10 each and Camille Marston with eight.
The Generals built a big lead early and were in control the rest of the way.
The boys game between Wakefield and Washington-Liberty was much closer, especially early with the lead seesawing until Wakefield went in front for good at 8-6. The Warriors led 12-8 after one quarter, 22-16 at halftime and 37-20 after three quarters.
Washington-Liberty, which shot poorly from the floor and foul line through three quarters, heated up in the final stanza. With a 13-1 run to start the period, the Generals rallied to within five in the final period, but got no closer.
“Our defense was really good tonight and the guys bought into what we wanted to do in this game,” Wakefield coach Tony Bentley told ARLnow.
Senior guard Dyson Beaty led Wakefield in scoring with 13 points. Forward Rayvon Hackley had 10 points and five rebounds; guard Jeremiah Poole scored nine with six rebounds and six assists; center Zak Amadou scored eight with seven boards; Tre’Sean Evan had six points; and guard Tyson Ordenes had five points and four rebounds.
“We got more players involved in scoring tonight, instead of everybody watching Poole trying to score,” Bentley said.
Washington-Liberty will be the bottom seed in the boys tournament. Longtime Generals coach Bobby Dobson was disappointed with the Generals’ regular-season record; he and many others considered W-L a district favorite when the season began.
The Generals have struggled with different players in and out of the lineup for various reasons, including illness and injury.
“I didn’t expect us to be in this position,” Dobson said. “We can play well and we have. Now we have to play well in the tournament.”
Washington-Liberty’s five starters scored just five points in the first half against Wakefield. The team’s leading scorer ended up being starting guard Adam Dodini with 15 points, all in the second half, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Fellow guards Gabe Smith and Derick Moore scored seven and six, respectively.
The Yorktown boys wrapped up the second season with a dramatic 52-51 walkoff victory over the host McLean Highlanders in their final regular-season game Feb. 13. Yorktown senior guard Jake Coulam banked in a long desperation three-pointer, taken about 15 feet behind the halfcourt line, as time expired.
On the game winner, Coulam took an uncontested inbounds pass from Walton Butler under the McLean basket with 2.1 seconds to play. He took one dribble, a couple of quick steps forward while getting a screen from Garrett Schmelling, then let go of his heave shot.
Coulam finished with a team-high 16 points.
Yorktown will host W-L in a quarterfinal boys game at 7 p.m. Feb. 17. The Patriots went 2-0 in regular-season games against Washington-Liberty.
Wakefield will host the No. 5 seed Langley Saxons in another quarterfinal, also at 7 p.m.. Wakefield was 2-0 vs. Langley in two regular-season contests.
In girls Feb. 17 quarterfinals, third-seeded Yorktown (12-8, 7-5) hosts No. 6 seed McLean at 5:45 p.m. and fifth-seeded Wakefield (7-12, 3-9) plays at fourth-seed Marshall at 7.
Yorktown defeated McLean, 51-32, in its final regular-season game Feb. 13, finishing 2-0 in the regular season against the Highlanders. Elena Debevec scored 12 for Yorktown.
