Ashburn, Va. — With a 15 day break between games, the Rock Ridge High School boys basketball team used the time to improve their teamwork.
“We’ve just been kind of struggling to find ourselves,” Rock Ridge head coach Jason Geyer said. “The last couple weeks we’re starting to find ourselves.”
In their first game back from break, the Phoenix hosted Park View in a game that Rock Ridge came together and dominated the second half to win 73-48 on January 3 in Ashburn.
“I like how we came out in the first half,” Geyer said. “We’ve been playing well recently, guys are starting to step up, and hopefully, we can be ready for [Dulles] District play coming up.”
Rock Ridge’s win was highlighted by all 11 dressed players scoring at least one basket. Rock Ridge senior guard Will Beck (20 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) led the way in scoring with 20 points. Additionally, Rock Ridge junior guard Dylan Chemoiwa (15 points, 2 rebounds) added 15 points and Rock Ridge junior forward Sid Donthireddy pulled down a team-high 6 rebounds along with 6 points.
“Everyone stepped up,” Donthireddy said. “Everyone scored, we played great defense, had a few spurts and overall [the game]went really great. It’s a team effort all around.”
Park View junior guard Noah Calalang (20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) quickly opened the scoring with a layup right after the tip-off but Rock Ridge battled back. A Donthireddy three-pointer and free throws by Chemoiwa pushed the Phoenix lead to 10-3 less than three minutes into the first quarter.
Two fastbreak layups by Park View junior guard Joshua Monnity (16 points, 10 rebounds) closed the Park View deficit to 12-7, but turnovers—11 total in the first quarter—hurt the Patriots. Rock Ridge capitalized on the takeaways as senior forward Mihir Peta and senior guard Lorenz Penn (8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) both made contested layups to grow the Phoenix lead to 17-7.
With a minute left in the first frame, Donthireddy hauled in a rebound and kicked the ball out to Beck. Beck knocked down the triple that ended the first quarter scoring with Rock Ridge taking a commanding 20-10 lead.
Park View closed the gap to 28-23 in the second quarter after a layup by junior forward Ayden Yester and a step-back three by Calalang. However, the cold shooting from Rock Ridge started to heat up in the later portion of the second frame.
Made shots by Beck, Chemoiwa, and Rock Ridge junior guard Dawson Boupha pushed the Phoenix lead to 36-25. Then, Rock Ridge senior guard Akah Kulkarni poured in a three-pointer after a turnover.
“[The lead] was huge for us,” Donthireddy said. “Any mistakes we made, they couldn’t piggyback off of them, because we had a huge lead. It kept the momentum going and we just kept moving forward.”
Calalang knocked in another three for Park View but Rock Ridge went on a 10-0 scoring run to close out the first half at 49-28.
Rock Ridge kept their first half lead in the third quarter, forcing 11 Park View turnovers and only turning the ball over once. These contributions gave the Phoenix a 60-39 lead at the end of the third frame. Even though their three-pointer shooting went cold, Rock Ridge capitalized on the takeaways by finding easy shots in the paint.
A three-pointer and free throw by Monnity gave Park View some momentum, however, Beck—who scored 7 points in the fourth quarter—and Rock Ridge senior guard Josh Veneros knocked down shots to grow the Phoenix lead to 69-42.
Free throws by Monnity and a contested layup by Lane closed the Rock Ridge lead to 69-48, but four late points by Rock Ridge junior guard Moussa Koroma and the Phoenix defense gave Rock Ridge the victory, 73-48.
With the win, Rock Ridge (0-0, 4-4) looks ahead to a short trip to Briar Woods on January 7. Park View (0-0, 4-5) will try to get back in the win column when they travel across Sterling to Potomac Falls on January 8.
“We have to play a lot of bigger schools they match us up with, and they’re good tests for us,” Geyer said. “I would have liked to have seen us do better in those games but I’m happy where we’re at, and hopefully, we’re heading in the right direction.”