Cougars Advance to Northern Region Final

After defeating Mount Vernon in the semifinal matchup 59-35 on Friday, the Oakton High girls basketball team will have a shot at redemption for last year's shortened tournament run when they face West Springfield in the Northern Region Championship.

Last year, the West Springfield Spartans defeated the Cougars in the semifinal round of the tournament, upsetting their perfect season against Northern Region opponents. The Spartans won the 2011 title, which had been the Cougars' in 2009 and 2010.

"West Springfield played a really good game against us last year. We got matched up in the semifinals and somebody had to stay home," said Fred Priester, head coach of the Cougars.

To get to the finals, the Concorde District Champion Cougars had to face the National District Champion Mount Vernon Majors on Friday. The two squads had faced each other early in the season, and the Cougars beat them handily 71-41.

But the Majors' loss to the Cougars was their only of the season, and Cougar Head Coach Fred Priester made sure his girls knew the Majors would like come out looking for vengeance.

To ward that off, the Cougars scored early and often. They outscored the Majors 20-6 in the first period, in which Caroline Coyer scoring eight of her game-high 20 points. Katherine Coyer scored 19 points for the Cougars.

The Cougars continued to dominate the scoreboard in the second, scoring 17 more points while allowing 13.

But the Cougar offense came to a screeching halt in the third period, scoring seven points to start the second half only to go scoreless for more than six minutes. Similar to their offensive slump through the Concorde District tournament, the Cougars continued a suffocating defense to minimize the damage of their dry spell. The third period ended with the Cougars up 44-26.

Priester noted the offensive stumble also happened in Wednesday's game against T.C. Williams.

"We're playing great to start the game and then everybody gets a little nervous. I try to get a few subs in to try to give some people some rest," Priester said. "We'll start trying to do so much because we're getting excited, then I'll say 'Girls, seriously? Is that the shot we want to take? Then all of a sudden we won't shoot at all."

The Cougars did not score again until a minute into the fourth period with a shot from Caroline Coyer. Though the lead shrank to as little as 13, the Cougars pulled ahead enough to take out the starters with a minute left and win the game by 24 points with a final score of 59-25.

The win gives Oakton High an automatic berth in the AAA Virginia High School League Tournament. 

The Cougars will play in the Northern Region Championship game against West Springfield High at 6 p.m. Monday at Robinson High.

"I know it's going to be a tough game. ... West Springfield's the reigning champs and you gotta knock them out before they're going to go down, and they don't go down easy because they're well-coached and they play hard and they've got good players," Priester said.

Coyers Named to All-Region Team

Oakton High's Caroline Coyer and Katherine Coyer were both named to the All-Northern Region first team.

Caroline Coyer earned the distinction of Player of the Year for the second season in a row.

Points: Caroline Coyer (20), Katherine Coyer (19), Karlie Cronin (5), Elizabeth Manner (5), Torri Marquis (5), Angela Sickels (2), Jasmine Zeller (2), Kate Dawson (1)