By nearly upsetting the host team, the West Springfield Spartans went from a much-welcomed 11th-hour replacement savior of sorts to a spoiler at the George Long Holiday boys basketball tournament at Wakefield High School.
The Spartans eventually lost to the host Wakefield Warriors, 55-53, in a seesaw opening-round Dec. 26 game of the eight-team, three-day high-school tourney.
West Springfield had been scheduled to participate in a two-day holiday competition in Prince George’s County. When that event was cancelled and Freedom-Woodbridge withdrew from the George Long event, the Spartans accepted an invitation to participate in the Arlington tournament.
The team was matched up in the first round against host Wakefield, which had defeated West Springfield by 20 points earlier this season.
Against Wakefield in the rematch, the Spartans had a chance to win, but Aaron Lowman’s three-pointer at the buzzer just missed.
The contest had nine lead changes and five ties after Wakefield built early leads of 14-4 and 8-0. Wakefield led 16-8 at the end of the first period, 26-24 at halftime and 44-41 after three quarters.
West Springfield led, 53-51, with 2:27 to play, but did not score again.
“We played well and better than the first time we met them this season,” West Springfield coach Terry Henderson told FFXnow. “We did a good job on the boards, but they shot free throws so well [18 of 18] and we had four or five possessions we’d like to have over.”
Wakefield coach Tony Bentley thanked Henderson and West Springfield for participating in the tournament. If not, there likely would have been just seven teams, and Wakefield probably would have played only two instead of three games.
Wakefield often played Henderson’s Edison Eagles teams when he coached the Franconia school and the two teams were members of the National District.
“It was fun to play one of Terry’s teams again,” Bentley said. “We had some battles when he coached at Edison.”
By entering the George Long tournament, West Springfield got an extra game on its schedule, as each entry played three games. The tournament in Prince George’s County would have been just two contests.
In the loss to Wakefield, Lowman scored 22 points, had four assists and made three three-pointers. Athan Martin scored 13; Noah Ghirmay scored seven and had six rebounds; Brandon Lesser scored four and had three steals and two assists; and Nicolas Scanlan had two points, six rebounds and two assists.
West Springfield finished 1-2 in the tournament, losing to Chantilly, 54-46, in the second round, then defeating Osbourn, 76-35, in its final contest to place seventh. Isaac Heaton scored 17 points for the Spartans against Osbourn, Lowman had 12 and Alex Bat-Erdene 10.
