Sports

Langley Set for Semifinal Clash with Annandale

After taking down one Patriot District powerhouse, Saxons have sights set on another

Two games. Two berths in the Northern Region championship at stake, as well as the right to represent the region in the VHSL AAA state tournament. Whose seasons will continue after Saturday’s showdowns?

Langley vs. Annandale, 3 p.m.

How they got here:

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Langley – Won Liberty District tournament, defeated Washington-Lee 63-30 in first round and Lake Braddock 58-56 in quarterfinals.

Annandale – Second place in Patriot District tournament, defeated Westfield 73-71 in first round and Mount Vernon 70-51 in quarterfinals.

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The Saxons win if…They play the same sort of game they played in the second half against Lake Braddock from the opening tip, as the final two quarters were 16 minutes of perfect Langley basketball. The Bruins torched Langley for 38 points in the first half of their quarterfinal game Wednesday, largely by dominating inside and putting the ball in the hands of Corey Bonds. Langley came out in the second half in a full-court press and a zone in the half court, and outscored Lake Braddock 33-18 in the second half to complete the comeback. While they shut down Bonds and limited Bobby Freedman and Matt Zanellato, they’ll be facing a different beast in Annandale. Freedman and Zanellato aren’t all that effective outside the paint. Annandale forward Karl Ziegler can score from anywhere on the floor, and is deadly at the free-throw line, where the Bruins struggled Wednesday. If they can get that same sort of effort from everyone defensively, they’ll be in good shape.

Offensively, Langley isn’t likely to have a Ziegler or a D’Angelo Boyce carry the load like Annandale might. Just like they got against Lake Braddock, they’ll need contributions across the board from Austin Vasiliadis, David Adams, Brandon Dwyer, Daniel Dixon and Jeff Cochran. If they can clamp down defensively, that should lead to easy buckets in transition. Langley’s drive-and-kick game worked beautifully in the second half against Lake Braddock. If that’s on again, the Saxons will march on.

The Atoms win if…They can find a third scorer. Karl Ziegler and D’Angelo Boyce are going to get theirs. You can contain them with a great defensive effort, but you’re not going to completely shut down either. Langley knows this, and is likely comfortable with it. The Saxons are one of the region’s best defensive teams. They just held Lake Braddock, a team that scored 70-plus points in more than one-third of its games this season, to 56 points. In three meetings with South Lakes, which ran up 76 points in its quarterfinal loss to Herndon, Langley allowed 44, 49 and 37 points.

Annandale has been struggling to find a third scorer ever since losing Ronnie McCoy. In each Atom win, since losing McCoy, someone has stepped up. In the Atoms first-round win over Westfield, Ziegler and Boyce combined for 41 points, while Melvin Robinson added 11. In their quarterfinal win over Mount Vernon, that trio combined for 43, with Boyce’s 20 leading the way. However, in their loss in the Patriot District championship to T.C. Williams, Ziegler and Boyce scored 35 points. The rest of the team had just 21. Annandale’s only win since losing McCoy in which a third scorer failed to materialize was a 75-65 victory over Lake Braddock, but they needed 61 points from Ziegler and Boyce combined to pull it off. That won’t happen against a team that is as strong defensively as the Saxons.

The verdict…I doubted the Saxons in the quarters against Lake Braddock and they proved me wrong, as Langley coach Travis Hess pointed out to me after the game. Apparently, I haven’t learned my lesson. I think Ziegler and Boyce will find enough help in the form of Robinson and Sanar Shamdeen, leading Annandale to the region championship and the state tournament.

T.C. Williams vs. Herndon, 6 p.m.

How they got here:

T.C. Williams – Won Patriot District tournament, defeated Oakton 52-32 in the first round and Yorktown 56-43 in the quarterfinals.

Herndon – Won Concorde District tournament, defeated Woodson 66-61 in the first round and South Lakes 87-76 in the quarterfinals.

The Titans win if…Their athletic defense can rein in the high-scoring Hornets. The Patriot District champions held all their Northern Region opponents but two to fewer than 60 points, something no other team in the region can say. Conversely, Herndon scored fewer than 60 points just twice in Northern Region contests this season. The responsibility of shutting down Northern Region Player of the Year Austin Hamilton will likely fall to Tyler Driver, although the Titans could throw some size at him and put Tyrell Sitton on the lightning-quick point guard. Also, look for T.C. to take a page from Woodson’s book. The Cavaliers had a lot of success aggressively hedging on every pick-and-roll involving Hamilton, forcing him to dribble away from the pressure. He seemingly never found a rhythm and was held to 17 points on the night.

The Titans are capable of putting up 70 or more points in a game, but in this instance that’s the game Herndon wants to play. If this game is played in the 60s, T.C. wins.

The Hornets win if…They prove themselves capable of playing a team on an athletic par with them. Most teams in the Northern Region cannot match Herndon’s overall athletic ability, but that cannot be said of T.C. Williams. While the Hornets can usually turn a game into a track meet, getting up and down the floor at a higher pace than their opponents, the Titans will be able to keep up with them. Herndon coach Chris Whelan knew if his team wanted to be region champs this year, they’d likely have to go through T.C. Williams eventually, which is why when the rest of the area teams were playing holiday tournaments in the area, Herndon was in South Carolina playing against teams from three different states. Back in December, Whelan said he scheduled the Hornets for that tournament so they could play against teams that were more athletic than them. Oh yeah, the Hornets won that tournament.

T.C. Williams comes in as the favorite, but Herndon has the best player on the floor in Hamilton. While the Hornets may want to get as many trips up and down the court as possible, evidenced by their 66 points per game, they won two of those tournament games by scores of 50-47 and 58-51. When the athletic playing field levels and the scores are kept down, Herndon has shown the mettle necessary to come out with a win.

The verdict…These are likely the two best teams in the region. They spent the entire season in the top three of the Patch Northern Region Coaches Poll, and ended at No. 1 and No. 2, with the Titans in the top spot. While the Titans were the unanimous pick as the best team in the region most of the year, its Herndon that is playing the best basketball in the region right now. The Hornets pull out a close, thrilling game, and move on to the region championship and, more importantly, states.


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