Leesburg, Va. — When you take a double-digit lead into the half of a district matchup against one of Loudoun’s perennial contenders, you know they’re coming out firing in the second half. The Tuscarora High School boys basketball team found that out quickly in the third quarter of their Potomac District battle with Potomac Falls High School on January 16 in Leesburg.
While the Panthers – who had four guys in double-digits – erased the Huskies’ 10-point halftime lead less than four minutes into the third quarter, Tuscarora remained poised and eventually regained momentum, trumping Potomac Falls, 74-63.
“It was a big win. I’m the new kid here, but everyone is always talking about how good Potomac Falls is. They came out tonight and played well, especially in the second half,” Tuscarora senior forward Henry Okoye said. “But we showed them what we have. You can’t come out and bully us in our own house.”
[adrotate banner=”19″]Okoye and the Huskies got off to a roaring start in the first half as the transfer collected six of his team-high eight rebounds in the first two quarters. Tuscarora got some early offense from Okoye and junior shooting guard Chandler Tuten – who scored a game-high 23 points – and headed into the half with a 32-22 lead.
“I knew they were going to come out hard,” Tuscarora head coach Al Smith said. “With Hawes coaching, they’re not going to quit. Sure enough they came out strong.”
The Panthers were fired up coming out of the locker room to start the third quarter, erasing the Huskies lead, pounding the ball into the paint and dominating the boards.
“We needed to relax because we were rushing,” Okoye said. “They were doing a good job of speeding us up, so we just needed to slow down and take our time.”
Tuscarora slowed down and started to pull away in the fourth quarter, as Tuten took full advantage of the Potomac Falls zone, connecting on a game-high five 3-pointers, while junior guard Leron West added a pair off the bench.
“We have different ways of attacking a zone, but we just ran our man-to-man offense for the most part, but we didn’t cut all the way through,” Smith said. “Our guys did a good job of moving the ball around and finding the open guy on the perimeter.”
The win moves Tuscarora (4-3, 9-6) to the No. 3 spot in the Potomac District in a three-way tie with Broad Run (4-3, 4-9) and Potomac Falls (4-3, 10-4).
“In this conference right now – with the exception of Freedom – I see the ability of any team to beat any other team any night,” Smith said. “We’ve been talking about getting better each and every day. This is a big win for us.”
Tuscarora Stats
| Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Chandler Tuten | 23 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2/2 |
| Henry Okoye | 12 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4/6 |
| Jared Cross | 11 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5/6 |
| Brayden Van Leliveld | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1/1 |
| Leron West | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2/2 |
| Michael Healy | 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0/1 |
| Alex Bailey | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Sammy Fellah | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Adam Thorne | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Huskies | 74 | 31 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 14/18 |
Potomac Falls Stats
| Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Ian Anderson | 16 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4/7 |
| Brett Asbury | 14 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Landon Hawes | 12 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1/1 |
| Sterling Anthony | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2/4 |
| Grant Misch | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 |
| Kevin Cox | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Jasias Elsea | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Peter White | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Keith Robinson, Jr. | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Haydne Hawes | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Connor Birch | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Drew Weidman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 |
| Panthers | 63 | 43 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 7/12 |