Purcellville, Va. — After dominating Rock Ridge in their first matchup, the Loudoun Valley High School boys basketball team stumbled in their second battle with the Phoenix on January 26. Nearly three weeks later, the Vikings had an opportunity to avenge that loss when they hosted Rock Ridge in a Dulles District semifinal.
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to jump out to a lead from which they’d never look back as they got their revenge over the Phoenix, 56-38, on February 13 in Purcellville.
“We have a very good defensive team. We’re holding teams to about 50 points or less, so that was definitely one of our goals tonight,” Loudoun Valley head coach Chad Dawson said. “Coming out of the half, we held them to just 7 points in the third quarter, because the kids really bought in.”
Loudoun Valley—who came in allowing about 53 points per game—earned its stripes in the third quarter, holding Rock Ridge to just 7 points, after opening the second half on a 10-0 run.
“We pushed the ball and got some layups which definitely fed the defense,” Dawson said. “We try to get out and run, and when we do, we’re pretty effective.”
Loudoun Valley senior forward Nate Boner scored his only two baskets of the night during that run, but his ability to rebound and distribute the basketball played a big role in the Vikings’ success as he finished with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
“[Rock Ridge head] coach [Jay] Geyer was saying he feels like Nate’s been here for forever, because he’s pretty much started and played since he was a freshman,” Dawson said. “He guards the other team’s big man or their best player. He runs point guard for us when people take Landen away. He’s very versatile. He was two assists shy of a triple-double against Broad Run last week. I don’t know if we’ve ever had a triple double here as long as I’ve been coaching; that’s how special he is.”
In addition to Boner, Loudoun Valley got scoring contributions from regulars Landen Conrad and Joey Danielson, but also got big efforts from sophomore guard Tal Rose and junior forward John Hasle, who contributed 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Despite extending their lead to 16 midway through the third quarter, the Vikings still had their hands full with Rock Ridge junior guard Mekhi Motilewa, who led all scorers with 15 points.
“It’s tough to know who to put on him,” Boner said. “If you put a smaller guy on him, he’ll body him, and if you put a bigger guy on him, he’ll get past him, like he did to me a couple times tonight, but you really just need to know when to send help.”
Motilewa stopped the Vikings’ 10-0 run with four straight made free throws, but Loudoun Valley answered right away as Conrad dished a couple of beautiful passes to a wide open Hasle under the basket as the Vikings maintained their cushion and eventually secured the win, 56-38.
“Landen’s lightning fast, and he’s one of the top players in the region,” Dawson said. “He’s gotten very good at getting to the basket, and he can shoot it, too, and tonight, he made a few really great passes to guys who happened to be in the right spot.”
No. 2 Loudoun Valley (5-3, 15-8) will travel to Tuscarora to play in the Dulles District championship on February 15 in Leesburg. The Huskies swept the regular season matchup, but the Vikings made big strides between their first and second matchups, and hope to finally get over the hump when they meet with the district tournament title on the line.
“We’re not the biggest team, but we play hard, and we play really good defense,” Boner said. “When we’re not giving up easy buckets and we’re getting to the rack, I don’t think there are many teams who can stop us.”
Loudoun Valley Stats
| Loudoun Valley | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Landen Conrad | 14 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Joey Danielson | 12 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Tal Rose | 12 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
| John Hasle | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Nathan Boner | 4 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Gavin Supplee | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Tristen Conrad | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Macklin Gaffney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Nathan McCann | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Michael Kabban | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Will Saba | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 56 | 21 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 4-for-6 |
Rock Ridge Stats
| Rock Ridge | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Mekhi Motilewa | 15 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9-for-12 |
| Kyle Desai | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Daniel Okoye | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
| Darien Ferrell | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
| William Beck | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Siddharth Donthireddy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Demarrius Stewart | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Alex Canfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 38 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 10-for-14 |