Briar Woods Survives Late Panthers Run

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Coming off tough back-to-back losses to Loudoun County and Park View, the Briar Woods Falcons entered Wednesday's Dulles district match up with Potomac Falls looking to get back on track before exams.

The Falcons used a scrappy full-court press to rattle their hosts early, but after a late Panthers run made things interesting, Briar Woods was happy to escape with a 52-46 win.

Jasmine Jefferies keyed a late fourth quarter run for the Panthers with two three-pointers in the final minutes. Her second trey -- a shot from deep in the left corner that kissed off the glass and through the net -- cut the Falcon lead to two with less than two minutes to play. But Briar Woods (7-6, 3-4) made its free throws down the stretch and Potomac Falls couldn't complete the comeback.

"This was a big win for us," Falcons coach Ben Thompson said. "We didn't want to go into the eight-day break for exams with a loss, so it was good to get back on track. It wasn't a great game for us, but it was a win and that's important."

The Panthers (4-9, 1-6) struggled to run their offense against the Falcon pressure, turning the ball over five times in the first quarter and falling behind 15-9. Sophomore forward Raven Short came into the game as the Panthers' top scorer but Briar Woods (7-6, 3-4) was able to keep the ball out of her hands for most of the first half.

"Our mindset is always to pressure teams and shut down their scorers," Thompson said. "If we can shut down their best players, we should be in pretty good shape. And I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight."

There was only 2:07 left in the half when Short got her first bucket, a three-pointer from the right side of the key. She scored five more points in a 9-2 run that cut the Falcon lead to 24-22 at the break.

"She makes a lot of things happen when she gets the ball, but we're not running everything through her because we've got a lot of girls who can put the ball in the hoop," Panthers coach Lynn Ewald said of Short. "On a night like tonight when she gets shut down, hopefully we can have other people step up."

Sophomore forward Kim Bell tallied her second straight double-double for the Falcons with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She had three of the Falcons' 14 steals as the center cog in the Briar Woods zone defense but also committed two turnovers down the stretch that helped Potomac Falls claw back into the game.

"We get really excited when we're in a close game like tonight because it hasn't happened to us that often this season. Usually we win big or lose by a lot." Bell said. "We just needed to calm down, keep our composure, take a timeout and get our heads back in it."

Jefferies led Potomac Falls with 13 points and seven boards, and junior forward Sara Hibson had 12. Short finished with 11 on just 4-for-13 from the field.

"We just didn't have the consistency tonight," Ewald said. "We played well in stretches and then we'd struggle at times. It's just a question of recognizing the situation and not turning it on and turning it off. We need to play at a high level all the time."

Sophomore forward Sierra White scored 15 points for the second straight game to lead all scorers and Krysta Gardner chipped in 12 for the Falcons. The junior guard had most of her points at the free throw line where she was 10-for-19 on the night.

"We're in the thick of it," Thompson said. "The first round of districts is over and we'd like to come out and win every game, of course. But we're going to prepare for every game like we have all season, take it one game at a time and see what happens the rest of the way."

Notes: Bell and Gardner have both scored in double figures in each of the last four games for the Falcons. Bell is averaging 15 points over that stretch while Gardner is averaging 13.5 … Both teams have a break for exams before returning to action on Jan. 24, when Briar Woods plays Broad Run and Potomac Falls takes on Heritage to kick off the second half of the district schedule.

Tagged: basketball, Briar Woods High School, high school sports, Potomac Falls High School

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