Ashburn, Va. — After dropping each of their previous four games by less than five points, the Briar Woods High School boys basketball team picked up their first Potomac District win against Freedom on January 16. Looking to build on that success, the Falcons hosted Riverside High School for a rematch of their December 19 meeting, during which the Rams claimed the 77-71 victory.
After Briar Woods led through the first quarter and into the second, Riverside went on an 11-1 run and held the Falcons to just 6 points in the second quarter, taking a 31-22 lead into halftime. But a career performance from Briar Woods sophomore guard Finn Gardner swung the momentum the other way, and the Falcons held off the Rams for the 59-50 win on January 20 in Ashburn.
“We had four games after the break. We had one practice in there where we all sat down and I said, ‘I know I’m frustrated, and it’s okay to voice that. You guys gotta start talking about it. What can we do to fix it?’” Briar Woods head coach Derek Butler said. “They started talking, and this is a group that—based on our record—could have just said, ‘All right, we’ve had enough of the year.’ But they all said, ‘Hey, this is how we’re gonna do it.’ And we started piecing those things together once we finally got some practices. And they’ve been great at practice: everybody’s working hard and they’re all pulling together. It’s good to see it finally pay off with some wins.”
The teams went back-and-forth to start the game, as each Briar Woods basket was answered with one by Riverside. Although the Falcons gained a slight edge thanks to a couple triples from Gardner (30 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals), Riverside senior guards Max Lawson (12 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals) and Dev Arora (11 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal) neutralized the threat with a few threes of their own.
“From the very first shot from the corner; I saw it went through, then hit another one from the corner,” Gardner said. “I knew that it was gonna be my night.”
Briar Woods pulled ahead slightly to end the first frame 16-12 after receiving contributions from five different players during the quarter.
Although the Rams cut the deficit to 2 to start the second quarter, Briar Woods senior guard Devon Pettibone (7 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals) hit a three-pointer to put the Falcons up 19-14. But an 11-1 Riverside run—during which the Rams forced 6 Briar Woods turnovers—turned the tides and gave the 25-20 advantage to the visiting team.
“We tried some different things with some different lineups in the second quarter and got away from what we were doing,” Butler said. “We were up 19-14, so they went on a heck of a run there while we were trying some different things.”
Despite a couple unsuccessful trips up-and-down the court, Briar Woods sophomore forward Albright Onyeneho (5 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block) contributed 3 of his game-high 7 rebounds in the second quarter as he fought to give his team additional opportunities. But foul trouble hurt the Falcons as a handful of free throws from Riverside sophomore guard Balmeet Sandhu (6 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal) and Lawson sparked the run.
Gardner stopped the bleeding by going coast-to-coast after collecting a defensive rebound, but Riverside junior guard Graydon Munsey (8 points, 3 rebounds) sank two triples from junior forward Brady Ridgeway (4 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists) to put the Rams up 31-22 heading into the locker room.
“[Out of the half we focused on] being tough, pushing through, and playing defense,” Gardner said.
The Falcons found open players and assisted on three consecutive baskets to start the third quarter as Gardner, senior forward Josh Winklosky (6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists), and sophomore forward Wyatt Sheehan (6 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal) all pitched in. Briar Woods senior guard Jerel Mayhew (2 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal) then found Gardner for three to even the score at 31-31.
“We were talking during halftime about what we had on the board for the ‘keys of the game’: getting down in the stance, getting out and being aggressive on Max on the perimeter. We were giving up righthand drives, and that’s something we don’t want to do, so we made sure we limited that and had our help there a little sooner, and the guys responded,” Butler said. “Obviously, we were not happy when we came in. They had the momentum, so we had to go out and take it in the first two minutes, and we did a good job of setting the tone there in the second half.”
A steal and a breakaway dunk from Gardner, followed by another steal and putaway from Pettibone capped a 13-0 Briar Woods run that put the Falcons back in the driver’s seat.
“[That dunk] was a big momentum mover,” Gardner said. “It got the team hyped.”
After 6 third-quarter turnovers, the Rams started taking better care of the ball as Arora found Ridgeway inside for two. Although Arora scored Riverside’s final 6 points of the quarter, each made shot was met with a Gardner basket as the Falcons’ hot hand finished with 15 of his game-high 30 points in the third quarter.
“Offensively and defensively, it translated one to the other. We knew we had to get stops if we were going to get back in it, and our defense fed into our offense,” Butler said. “Finn really had it going tonight, too. He is one of our offensive go-to guys. He’s our leading scorer, and he just wants to win.”
Onyeneho was big on the boards again in the fourth, this time capitalizing a few times himself. Gardner scored from both inside and outside the arc, and Sheehan and Winklosky connected on assisted shots to give the Falcons their largest lead of the night at 13. Although a few late free throws brought the Rams back within single digits, it wasn’t enough as Briar Woods sealed the 59-50 victory.
“We got two district wins in a row, and we just gotta keep stacking them to get that position up [in the standings],” Gardner said.
Briar Woods (2-5, 5-12) will close the week on the road with a rematch against Potomac Falls on January 23, while Riverside (3-4, 7-9) will face off against No. 1 ranked Stone Bridge on January 22.
“The first time we played them, Riverside was in third place, and they blew us out, but we came back to make it close. We’ve been in games; it’s basically been one possession,” Butler said. “We’re young, and we’re just trying to figure out how to win. These last couple games, we’ve pieced it together at the end of the game. We’ve even had some good looks that we just haven’t made, but now we’re starting to convert some of those. You can keep telling them and they can keep telling each other, but sometimes when you don’t get the wins they might stop believing, but finally it’s paying off for them.”
Aimee Vincent captured 200+ photos at the game!
Briar Woods Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Finn Gardner | 30 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Devon Pettibone | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Josh Winklosky | 6 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Wyatt Sheehan | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Albright Onyeheho | 5 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1-for-2 |
| Jerel Mayhew | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Jack Jennrich | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Ben Roshak | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Nicholas Donatella | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
| James Price | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Elijah Grundy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Total | 59 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 2 | 4-for-10 |
Riverside Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Max Lawson | 12 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3-for-3 |
| Dev Arora | 11 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Graydon Munsey | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Balmeet Sandhu | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6-for-6 |
| Brady Ridgeway | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Oliver Zimmerman | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Jace Jones | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Dylan Dobson | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Noah Blubaugh | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Colby Hudtloff | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| DJ Little | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Kaden Lindsey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0-for-0 |
| Total | 50 | 17 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 11-for-15 |