Leesburg is Title Town …

Basketball sponsored by cheers sports

By: Dan Sousa

(Feb. 9, 2008) – Leesburg is title town as both the Loudoun County High School girls basketball and Heritage High School boys basketball teams clinched ties for the AA Dulles District regular-season titles on Friday night.

The Runnin’ Raider girls did it by winning their 16th consecutive game and improving to 12-0 in district and 18-2 overall with a tense, 60-57, win at upset-minded Briar Woods.

The Pride boys got a record performance from sharp-shooting Preston Findley who dropped seven 3-pointers and scored 32 points in a, 91-72, win at Freedom. The Pride improved to 10-2 and 12-7.

Heritage secured the tie for the district title after second place Potomac Falls ( 8-4, 12-8) fell at surging Dominion, 63-56.

Both LC and Heritage now need just one win in their final two regular-season games next week to take the title outright and the automatic bid to the Region II tournament that goes with it.

The Pride boys are looking for a third straight title (they shared it with PF last year after going 14-0 in district two years ago) and face hot Dominion at home Tuesday and then rival LC on the road Friday. The LC girls, which advanced to the state semifinals two seasons ago, host second-place Freedom Tuesday and then finish at Heritage.

Heritage Boys 91, Freedom 72

It was the highest-scoring AA Dulles District game of the season and none were more high-scoring than Heritage senior Preston Findley who tied a school record with seven 3-pointers and scored a season-best 32 points in the Prides’s 91-72 win at Freedom.

Heritage hit a dozen 3-pointers in the win with Breton Peters, Chris Broderick, Steven Shockley and Ross Madison all finding the downtown range.

Michael Massey finished with 14 and Curtis Rustin added 12 for Heritage. Peters scored 10, Broderick seven and Devon Alcala and Shockley both six. Madison finished with three and James Austin added a point.

Freedom had a balanced attack with five players in double digits: Troy Dockett (14), Henry Brisbie (12), Kendall Jackson (12), Ron Campbell (11), and David Conrow (11). Also for the Eagles (3-8, 4-15): Lee Duffy-Ledbetter scored seven and Ethan Stewart added five.

Loudoun County Girls 60, Briar Woods 57

Senior Samantha Akers had a team high 16 points and finished with six steals and five assists as the Raiders edged the feisty Falcons.

LC freshman Brittany Batts scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Sophomore Kendra Holmes continued her outstanding play with 14 points and she pulled down 10 rebounds. Holmes scored eight of those points in the second quarter as County led 31-27 at halftime, and she played great defense in the fourth quarter holding Briar Wood’s Kim Bell to two points after she had scored 18 in the first three quarters.

LC sophomore Aliss Kain was big in the second half, scoring all six of her points and tallying seven rebounds. Junior point guard Kerry Sarver did a nice job on both ends fo the court to finish with five points and six assists.

BW was led by Bell’s game-high 20 points and Krysta Gardner scored 17. Aminah Aziz added 10 for the Falcons.

LOUDOUN COUNTY 60, BRIAR WOODS 57
L (18-2, 12-0) — Akers 16, Batts 14, Holmes 14, Kain 6, Sarver 5, Flanagan 3, Williams 2. Totals 27 3-6 60.
B (12-7, 6-5) — Bell 20, Gardner 17, Aziz 10, White 5, Adams 3, Kiechlin 2.
Totals 21 12-19 57.
Halftime: Loudoun County, 31-27.
Three-point goals: L 3 (Akers 2, Sarver); B 3 (Bell, Aziz 2).