When Darren Buchanan Jr. won All-Met Player of the Year last winter, he became a rarity as a boys’ basketball player from a D.C. public school to do so.
Now Jackson-Reed is after something else uncommon: It wants to be even better without its graduated star.
On Saturday, the No. 6 Tigers beat No. 7 Hayfield, 83-79, to snap the Hawks’ 40-game winning streak and pick up another impressive victory amid a 15-3 start to the season.
“What’s really helped this team is that when June graduated,” Coach David “Tee” Johnson said, referring to Buchanan’s nickname, “he left the young guys with the blueprint of what it takes to be great, so in some ways, it don’t really feel like he even left. Everyone realizes that they can’t individually replace June, but if everybody plays their roles we can be as good as we want to be.”
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That has taken some time to learn, as junior Robert Dockery admits. Dockery, a four-star recruit who recently committed to Texas A&M, has been expected to slide into the role of team catalyst and verbal leader despite playing more of a complementary role last season beside Buchanan.
“I ain’t realize how hard his job really was last year,” Dockery said. “He was doing a lot for us that I didn’t really realize until I had to wear them shoes. Like, you got to be responsible and think about everybody else’s game, because they all looking to you to lead ’em.”
Jackson-Reed’s strong start includes wins over Whitney Young (Ill.), and Roman Catholic (Pa.), but the Tigers have also struggled at times against elite competition. They held leads of six points or greater late in the second half in each of their three losses — against Gonzaga, Wellington (Fla.) and Bullis.
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“I think that’s just part of the growing pains,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a really good team, but sometimes we still miss a natural leader like June that can kind of calm the troops when guys start getting excited or things get hairy late. Rob did a pretty good job of being that guy at the Gonzaga Classic, but being that kind of leader isn’t necessarily natural for him, so game-to-game he’s still figuring it out.”
Saturday against Hayfield followed a familiar script. After three evenly played quarters, Jackson-Reed built a 10-point lead with under two minutes to play before Hayfield cut it to three in a little over a minute. But two clutch free throws from Dockery on the ensuing possession, with 12 seconds remaining, secured the win.
Dockery led the way for the Tigers with 20 points, five blocks and three rebounds. Senior Marvin Brimage added 18 points and two steals, while Gonzaga transfer Justin Gilmore and sophomore Jayden Fort had 15 and 14 points, respectively.
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“Showing that we can still be great or even greater without [Buchanan] is definitely important to us and something that he would want too,” Dockery said. “We’ve heard the talk about us not really being like that, and we been using it as motivation.”
— Tramel Raggs
Gar-Field gets first win in four years
As Gar-Field senior Andrea Countiss fell to the floor in Friday’s game against Forest Park — with her team up a point with mere seconds remaining — a single thought crossed her mind.
She was the reason her team’s 58-game losing streak was about to extend to 59. The Red Wolves had last won a game Jan. 11, 2019, when she was in eighth grade.
“Oh, dang, was that a [blocking foul]?” Countiss wondered. “Did I just sell?”
Instead, the official called Forest Park for a charge, teammate Ayanna Fleming hit the game-sealing free throws seconds later, and the Red Wolves held on, 30-27. They had waited their entire careers for this: a postgame celebration.
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“They know what people think of Gar-Field girls’ varsity basketball,” Coach Tyler Williams said. “They were tired of hearing it.”
Though the Red Wolves are still 1-11 and far out of contention, Countiss believes these foundation-laying steps will serve them well in future seasons. She praised her first-year coach, who took over just one week before the season began after the previous coach departed for personal reasons.
Countiss has always been one of the taller and stronger players on the roster, but when Williams took over, she and other starters felt as though he lit a fire under them. It was a simple adjustment: No spot in the starting five is guaranteed. Williams tweaks his rotation each week based on who gives the most effort during practices and games.
“I’ve had a good time, but it has been really hard,” Countiss said. “There are moments when you think about quitting, not wanting to stick with a program since [freshman year] without getting a win. But since Coach Williams joined, the energy changed. I decided to stick with it.”
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— Spencer Nusbaum
Players of the week
DeShawn Harris-Smith, Paul VI: The senior Maryland commit terrorized conference competition, scoring 27 points in a win over St. Mary’s Ryken and then posting a triple-double (22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) as the Panthers topped rival O’Connell.
Kennedy Hall, Lackey: The sophomore posted 18 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a 54-45 win over St. Charles. The win avenged a 26-point loss from earlier this season and came even after the Chargers were down 13 in the first quarter.
Ryan Derderian, Battlefield: The rangy senior has been a one-man highlight reel all season and averaged 16 points against tough in-district competition this week to help his Bobcats remain unbeaten.
Dashani Coleman, Oxon Hill: The sophomore’s stats were all over the Clippers’ score book as she recorded 12 points, eight steals, six rebounds and four assists in a 69-13 win over Fairmont Heights.
Games to watch
No. 3 Paul VI boys at No. 11 DeMatha, Tuesday, 7:30
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Parkdale girls at No. 13 C.H. Flowers, Thursday, 7 p.m.
No. 7 Hayfield boys vs. Potomac (Va.) at West Springfield, Friday, 7 p.m.
Damascus girls at No. 15 Clarksburg, Friday, 7:15 p.m.
Damascus undefeated and getting healthy
The Damascus boys have won their first nine games — even with their leading returning scorer limited by injury.
Senior guard Peter Mangan, who sprained his right ankle and tore ligaments in a preseason tournament in late October, was cleared to play just days before the Hornets’ first game. He has played fewer minutes than usual and has missed some games.
Still, No. 20 Damascus looks poised to improve on last year’s 20-win campaign that ended in the Maryland 3A quarterfinals.
“We’ve had basically the same team for three years now,” Coach Brian Humphrey said. “I always felt we were going to be good just because of how we did last year [and] how many guys we return.”
The coach pinpointed the team’s third game against Wootton, a 20-point road win, as a moment that showed its potential.
The Hornets controlled the game, and Mangan looked like his old self again. After scoring just 14 points across the first two games, he had 20 points and five assists in 23 minutes that day.
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“I was really able to just control my pace, wasn’t as explosive as I was used to being because of my ankle,” Mangan said. “Just got into the flow of things. … I sort of realized I could still do what I wanted to do, just playing in a different way.”
With Mangan resting during holiday tournament games, Damascus pulled off wins against Quince Orchard and River Hill.
Damascus then returned to its Montgomery County schedule with a blowout of Watkins Mill. Then came a 10-point win Friday over Poolesville, a game that could indicate Mangan’s increased availability as the season moves on.
“I think he played every minute [that] night, and we certainly needed him,” Humphrey said. “He’s really started to come back around and be himself again.”
— Varun Shankar
Paul VI endures difficult schedule
We are just over one month into the high school basketball season, and for the No. 4 Paul VI girls, that early stretch was replete with both frustration and growth. Against some of the best teams and players in the country, Coach Scott Allen has watched his team find its footing on a big stage.
“We’ve had teams in the past where we are at our very best in December, just because they’re so experienced,” Allen said. “This year’s team has been a lot of fun to coach because you see improvement in every game. Past years’ teams, some of them have been on cruise control because the ceiling has already been hit. The team we have this year, our goal is to be playing our best basketball in February.”
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One of the best learning experiences of the season came in early December, when the Panthers lost to Winston-Salem Christian (N.C.) on a buzzer-beating three-quarter-court shot.
“That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me in 28 years, a three-quarter-court shot. … But we knew we had to learn from it and we knew we had to move on. And we had to go play one of the best teams in Florida two days later.”
The Panthers beat that Florida team, St. Thomas Aquinas, 39-36, to get things back on track and have gone 7-2 since. All the while, Allen has preached consistency and connection.
“I know we have a lot of talent, maybe some of the best we’ve ever had,” he said. “But this isn’t golf and this isn’t tennis. You need to be a cohesive unit.”
— Michael Errigo
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