South Lakes Falls To Stone Bridge In Champions Classic Event At South Lakes

By BRIAN McNICOLL

South Lakes High’s basketball Seahawks have proven they can play well enough in spurts to overcome slow stretches. The question is whether those spurts will last long enough and provide enough points for victory.

South Lakes twice got itself out of slumps, but it wasn’t enough as Stone Bridge went on two decisive runs of its own to take a 60-49 victory over the Seahawks in the Champions Classic tournament Friday night at South Lakes.

Kevin Reyes led the Bulldogs with 21 points, and Kalen Golston added 11 as the Bulldogs improved to 6-3.

South Lakes fell to 5-4. Senior guard Makhai Ramos, who didn’t play Monday in a 54-46 victory over McLean and played sparingly but had a key late bucket in a 56-49 victory over Riverside on Wednesday, played 24 minutes and led the Seahawks with 15 points on Friday.

South Lakes got itself into an early hole, scoring one basket in the final five minutes of a fast-paced first quarter to fall behind 19-9.

They didn’t move the needle for the first five minutes of the second quarter either. But then Emerson Finney hit a three, his first basket on the way to a 12-point outing. George Zarechnak then stole the inbounds play and scored, the Seahawks drew an immediate offensive foul, then later got another Finney 3 to make it 25-20 at half.

Stone Bridge took advantage of another slow start for South Lakes in the third quarter to build a 38-28 lead with two minutes left in the period. But the Seahawks found another burst – a three and two free throws from Ramos, Finney’s other two threes and a basket in the lane by Joshua Dagbe – to tie the game at 41 through three quarters.

South Lakes was still within 50-44 halfway through the quarter, but a 9-0 Stone Bridge run sealed the deal.

“It’s so frustrating; you work that hard to get back in it, then there’s another run,” said South Lakes Coach Mike Desmond. “We lost this game in the first quarter and the first three minutes of the third quarter. It’s consistent deficiencies. At this point we should be making new mistakes, but we’re still making the same old mistakes. We have people who can’t run things we put in on Nov. 11 (the first day of practice).”

It’s been that kind of season for the Seahawks so far – moments where the potential is evident; others that are more frustrating. And the upheaval doesn’t figure to end soon. South Lakes plays in a tournament at Wakefield on Dec. 26th, 27th and 29th and travels to Martinsville to take on the squad there now coached by former South Lakes assistant and Herndon head coach Gary Hall.

Desmond said he told the players after Friday's game to expect a new starting lineup for the next game, one he hopes will include Brady Theis, who missed the Stone Bridge game with a concussion after taking a hard shot to the head while on the floor against Riverside on Wednesday night.

During this time he is challenging his players not to just talk about addressing the causes of the periods of inconsistency but to take the actions needed to prevent them.

“I’m saying to them tell me why I should play you. What do you offer? What can you get better at? Can you help us move on to the point where we make new mistakes?”

Desmond said players know “the clock is ticking. We’ve been competitive, but we obviously need to get better. We have four more games to figure this out.”