South Lakes Defeats Herndon, Falls to Washington-Liberty As Final Stretch of Non-District Season Begins

By BRIAN McNICOLL

On Friday night at home against arch-rival Herndon, a halftime meeting turned things around for the South Lakes High Seahawks. On Saturday night, a tense postgame meeting was held to reset for the future after a frustrating loss.

Against Herndon, South Lakes allowed offensive rebounds on four straight possessions late in the first half to allow the Hornets to pull close. But Seahawks Coach Mike Desmond addressed the matter at halftime, and South Lakes responded with a 20-2 run to blow open a 70-43 victory.

“We talked about the rebounds. We talked about the ball side help. Closing out on corner 3s, and we got better at all that,” Desmond said. “And George [Zarechnak, 6-3 senior forward] made some plays. And Joshua [Dagbe, 6-foot sophomore guard]] made some great decisions with passes.Machai [Ramos, senior guard] got to the basket and created for us. So all around effort.”

Zarechnak, who finsihed with 15 points, second the team in scoring to sophomore Emerson Finney, who had 19, said “rebounding definitely was a big point of emphasis” in the halftime meeting. “But it’s something we need to figure out on our own. We weren’t thinking about it on our own.”

On Saturday at Washington-Liberty, the Seahawks lost by only five points, 54-49, but “it felt like 20,” said Desmond, who went to his bench early in the fourth quarter and never brought his starters back as South Lakes fell to 3-3 going into a non-district game tonight at McLean.

Was Dagbe surprised that he and others ended the game on the sideline. “Absolutely not,” he said. “Our starters didn’t play particularly well. We need guys to buy in, to pursue our common goals and interests.”

Desmond said the Washington-Liberty game was lost in the first quarter, when the Generals closed on a 9-0 run to take an 18-6 lead. South Lakes scored the first 11 points of the second quarter to pull within one, but W-L found its footing and led 29-26 at the break.

The Generals, now 5-1, pushed the lead up to 12 in the third quarter, but South Lakes pushed back in the fourth behind furious defense led by freshman David Landeryou, who scored six points in the game, four on steals at the front of South Lakes’ defense.

Ramos had nine and Zarechnak and Dagbe eight each, but none were around at the end when Laderyou, Finney and others were scratching it out with the Generals.

“Our guards were able to take control and we were able to take advantage of some double tams to get open shots,” said Washington-Liberty Coach Robert Dobson, now in his 38th season with the Generals.

Desmond said the Seahawks can expect to see some changes in coming days as the team gears up for its final stretch before Concorde District play begins in February.

“We have seven games, and those games are huge for us,” Desmond said. “We’re going to see who can guard their man. We get caught ball-watching. We can’t figure out how to do both. These are tough games coming up and we need to get a lot better.”.