Sports
Fourth-Quarter Run Leads Titans over Atoms
Annandale falls in district championship game, looks ahead to regionals
When the outcome of a game is still to be decided, confidence is a trait that can will a team to victory. Leading 56-52 with less than three minutes remaining in the Patriot District tournament championship, T.C. Williams guard Tyrell Sitton demonstrated a keen sense of senior leadership needed to command a game.
Sitton’s arching 3-pointer on the left elbow with 2:41 left in the fourth quarter started a 13-4 run to end the game to give the Titans a 69-56 win over Annandale.
The win over the Atoms gives T.C. Williams its fifth Patriot District tournament championship in the past six seasons.
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“[I] do my role and took over the game,” said Sitton, who scored 13 points and earned tournament MVP honors. “It came down to it, and they look up to me. We were determined to play hard and give it 100 percent. Actually more than that, 110 percent.”
After leading 31-16 with 2:10 remaining in the first half, it looked like T.C. Williams would easily humble the Atoms. Junior small forward T.J. Huggins came off the bench to score 8 quick points to help the Titans stretch their large lead and create momentum.
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But the Atoms were far from done.
They knew going in that they were one of only two teams in the Northern Region to defeat T.C. Williams in the regular season.
Annandale closed out the second quarter on an 11-0 run that was started by a Sanar Shamdeen 3-pointer and finished with a Karl Ziegler offensive rebound for a layup at the end of the quarter to narrow T.C. Williams’ lead to 31-27 at halftime.
Ziegler, who scored a game-high 20 points proved why he was named the Player of the Year in the Patriot District with 13 second-half points against a difficult defensive onslaught that was staged by a stubborn and effective Titans unit. Ziegler’s drive through the lane for a layup with 5:35 remaining in the third quarter tied the game at 33. With the help of senior point guard D’Angelo Boyce (15 points) and senior forward Melvin Robinson (12 points), Annandale used a multi-quarter 17-2 run to get even with the top-seeded Titans.
“It was real close,” said Boyce, who was a First-Team All District selection. “We tied it up and had our chances to go up. We had a couple of turnovers and a couple of missed layups.”
The Titans broke free briefly after the Atoms’ gutsy run. T.C. Williams followed up a made 3-pointer by reserve guard Jordan Byrd with an alley-oop from Daquan Kerman to Jamal Pullen to help the Titans get back into their athletic tempo and give them a 46-37 advantage. Pullen was consistent in all facets of the game and scored 12 points.
“We don’t have anybody that’s capable of scoring 25 or 30 points a night,” T.C. Williams coach Julian King said. “Fortunately for us, we have four or five guys that can in and score in double figures, which helps us out and helps keep other teams off balance. Everybody stepped in tonight.”
Even with the Titans in a groove, Annandale didn’t back down. Karl Ziegler’s physical attributes were displayed when he was fouled after getting an offensive rebound and converted on a shot for a 3-point play. Ziegler’s nine third-quarter points helped the Atoms get back into the game with the score 46-42 entering the fourth quarter.
Then T.C. Williams stepped up their renowned defense. Ten times this season, the Titans held an opponent to less than 50 points. They almost did it again in the championship game.
“[The] fourth quarter is what I’ve been talking about all year,” King said. “The fourth quarter for us defensively was almost perfect. We had a few mistakes here and there. They weren’t mistakes that we actually made; it’s that Annandale is a great team.”
After Tyrell Sitton made his crucial 3-pointer to provide the momentum needed to win in the closing minutes, the Titans got a major spark from point guard Tyler Driver. The senior drove hard on the baseline to get hacked and made a layup in the process to result in a 3-point to give T.C. Williams a 62-52 lead with 2:11 remaining in the game. Sitton later made a mid-range jumper from inside the foul-line with 1:27 remaining to lock the championship.
“We look to play hard from beginning to the end,” Driver said. “It’s not just the last five minutes. To finish out the game like that is amazing.”
The Titans closed the show with a last-minute steal that resulted in a Rick Mathews (11 points) layup to signify an opportunistic defensive performance.
Both teams shot stellar from the foul-line. Annandale stayed in the game by making 13-of-14 free throws, while T.C. Williams made 15-of-20.
The season isn’t over for both teams. The Atoms and Titans will begin on the Northern Region tournament on Monday. Annandale will host Westfield, which finished in third place in the Concorde District, and T.C. Williams will host Oakton, which finished in fourth place.
“This [win] means a lot,” Sitton said. “It means we have the momentum going into the region and just play hard, but this is just one round. We go to go to the next round and win.”