Titans Dominate in 67-49 Win Over R.E. Lee
The T.C. Williams Boys Basketball Team improved to 8-1 overall (3-0 Patriot) with a convincing 67-49 home court victory January 6 over District rival Robert E. Lee.
Tonight we wanted to give 110 percent effort, said first-year T.C. head coach Julian King. We wanted to execute on offense and we wanted to play an up-tempo game.
After several first quarter lead changes, T.C. closed out the first eight-minute stanza with a 16-15 lead and never looked back during the remainder of the 32-minute contest.
The three T.C. captains, Dominique Copeland, Edward Jenkins and Gavin Peterson, accounted for a combined 21 points and the latter two did their part offensively to blow the contest wide open to commence the second quarter.
Shooting guard Jenkins knocked down an early second quarter trey and the Titans led 19-15.
Point guard Peterson then scored three of the next four T.C. buckets and the Red, White and Blue Titans were ahead 28-15 with 5:34 remaining in the second quarter.
T.C. ravaged the visitors 26-8 in terms of second quarter point production and comfortably led 42-23 at intermission.
In the second quarter, we went to full court press defensively and we were able to score in transition off of their turnovers, said King.
The Titans, who have now won a remarkable 55 consecutive Patriot District contests, also convincingly led 52-37 as the third quarter ended.
King substituted liberally throughout the second half and the largest Titan lead of the contest occurred with 1:41 remaining in the third quarter when Darrick Wood knocked down a free throw to give T.C. a 52-29 advantage.
T.C. outscored the visiting Lancers from Springfield 15-12 in the final stanza to account for the 67-49 victory.
The 18-point margin of victory was T.C.s second largest margin of victory of the season.
The relatively young Titans, who have only five seniors on the team, were paced offensively by junior Ryan Yates (15 points), senior Jenkins (nine), sophomore Wood (eight), senior Peterson (seven), junior Tayron Chambers (six), senior Copeland (five), senior Cortez Taylor and junior Marcus Via and junior Billy Rowland (four apiece), junior Darriss Porter and sophomore Tyrell Sitton (two apiece) and junior Rodney Lewis (one). Junior Joe Moses and sophomore Jay Whitmire did not score.
Senior tri-captain/point guard Peterson said after the victory, Coach King is a good coach. Its kind of like the same team philosophy that we had last season with coach [Ivan] Thomas. Weve got good bonding on this team and we need to make sure that we play up to our potential. Defense comes first when playing basketball for T.C. Williams and on offense, we need to share the basketball.
Starting forward Chambers also commented after the contest, Defensively, we play help defense and we all need to guard our man. On offense, we made sure that we got our plays right tonight and we did a good job of executing.
King went on to add, Were not really a real big team [physically] this year. I want our players to use their speed and play up-tempo. Our first goal this season is to win the Patriot District and the way that I see it is that Lake Braddock and Hayfield are probably our two biggest District threats. In terms of taking over for coach [Ivan] Thomas, it has been a pretty easy transition. I was associate head coach last year [when we won the State] so the players pretty much knew how things were going to be conducted this year.
T.C. is not only the defending Patriot District Champion and defending Northern Region Champion, but also the defending Virginia State AAA Champion.
The Titans are scheduled to host West Springfield January 9 and Montrose Christian January 10.
On the season, T.C. has now defeated Patriot District rivals Annandale 68-58, West Potomac 61-45 and Lee 67-49.
In addition, the Titans have knocked off Mount Vernon 70-66, Edison 68-57, Washington-Lee 75-46, St. Stephens/St. Agnes 59-44 and Wakefield 67-51.
T.C.s lone loss was a narrow 59-58 setback to Maryland powerhouse Riverdale Baptist, led by former Bishop Ireton guard Javorn Farrell who transferred to Riverdale early last year.
King is assisted this season by Cornell Jones, Irvin Hay and Antony Moses.
