It’s no surprise that the Oakton Cougars girls basketball team is off to a strong start this season.
With three returning starters from last winter’s Concorde District champion and 6D North Region tournament runner-up squad, the high-school unit (22-7 last fall) is expected to be a contender for those titles again this year.
It was as if a switch turned on at halftime for the Oakton Cougars.
In the second half, the boys basketball team seemed to play harder and with more purpose, rallying to score a victory.
This year’s boys basketball Lake Braddock Holiday Tournament will include eight public high-school varsity teams.
The competition is set to run Dec. 26-28 at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke. There are four games each day, at 2:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 5:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. All teams will play three games, one per day.
The annual girls and boys neighborhood varsity basketball doubleheader between the Madison Warhawks and Marshall Statesmen didn’t provide much suspense this year.
The host Warhawks swept the high-school games by comfortable margins the night of Dec. 13. In front of a large crowd, including loud-cheering student sections, the Madison girls won the opener in Vienna, 45-29, and the boys took the nightcap 55-43.
Federal prosecutors have charged a travel agent accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme and ultimately defrauding the George Mason University men’s basketball team earlier this year.
Maurice Eugene Smith, 44, of Atlanta is believed to have used the nearly $160,000 paid by the school to cover his personal expenses instead of booking the team’s anticipated trip to the Bahamas, according to court records.
In the final stages of the fourth quarter, the Marshall Statesmen boys basketball team held a five-point lead and appeared poised to improve to 4-0.
Then the visiting Statesmen hit a couple of late-game bumps in the road, resulting in a 59-53 overtime road loss to the Lake Braddock Bruins (1-2), who won for the first time this high-school season.
Finally, the Lake Braddock Bruins won a close basketball game.
After opening their season with two- and three-point losses, the boys high-school team rallied to win a tight contest by defeating the visiting Marshall Statesmen, 59-53, in overtime in non-district action Dec. 10.
They started slow and fell behind early, but by game’s end the Robinson Rams had rallied and were still undefeated in girls high-school basketball action.
Host Robinson (4-0) defeated the Washington-Liberty Generals, 36-29, Monday night (Dec. 9) in a non-district game in Fairfax. The Generals, who were without injured starting center Eve Jungman, fell to 1-2.
The Langley Saxons and Potomac School Panthers had recent mixed results against opponents that were top teams in girls state basketball tournaments last season.
Langley (2-1) defeated the visiting Woodgrove Wolverines (0-1) of Purcellville, 59-54, as Anya Rahman scored 31 points with two steals.
The South County Stallions opened their boys basketball season with a 30-point home blowout victory Thursday night (Dec. 5).
The Stallions defeated a young Washington-Liberty Generals team of Arlington, 71-41, in non-district high-school action.
