Boys Basketball: Cougars to Depend on Deep Bench

For the Oakton High boys basketball team, this year is a rebuilding year — to say the least.

The Cougars have no returning starters and no returning players who put in any significant amount of varsity playing time last season — except Eric Goins, a senior forward who is sitting on the bench with crutches after breaking his leg during the football season.

So far, the Cougars are fighting hard to build a squad that can stay competitive once Concorde District play begins in January. They have a record of 4-2, and are still working out the best starting lineup to keep them in contention this season.

The Cougars lost their first Friday night home game of the season 62-36 to a dominant West Potomac squad.

In Friday's game, head coach David Brooks started three sophomores and two juniors. Starters Michael Fradette, junior, and Robert Bacon, sophomore, led the game with 11 and seven points, respectively, accounting for half of Oakton's point total.

Three-pointers gave Oakton 21 of its 36 points, a statistic Brooks was reluctant to tout because of what it said about their offensive approach: impatient.

"We were rushing shots tonight and they were able to take advantage. We shot for way too many 3-pointers," Brooks said. "West Potomac is a great basketball team, but I don't think they're 30 points better than us. We made mental mistakes that led to tonight's score. ... We are a young basketball team, but when we're playing our best we're an aggressive basketball team and a mentally tough basketball team."

But Brooks thinks his team has the capacity to learn from tonight's mistakes, and hopes tough matchups in the next couple weeks will help prepare his young squad for their Concorde District foes.

"If you want to break us down into one word, it's versatile. There's a lot of versatility in this basketball team," Brooks said. "There's also more depth this year than in years past, so we're used to having seven-man rotations for the past two years. This year, we're legitimately nine or 10 deep. That means every guy who steps on the basketball court should be fresh and provide a spark for us."

Brooks plans to keep practices competitive to both prepare the Cougars for tough matchups and to encourage the boys to push each other to become the best team they can be.

The Oakton boys will travel to crosstown rival James Madison High School for a 7:30 p.m. game Tuesday.

Game statistics:

Points: Michael Fradette (11), Robert Bacon (7), Dale Good (6), Chris Durant (5), Thomas Tribble (3), Alex Lucas (2) Michael Durst (1), Cory Harris (1)