T.C. Williams Girls Fall to West Springfield

With three decisive losses to West Springfield on its record this season, the T.C. Williams girls basketball entered Monday night's Northern Region championship game really wanting to put an end to the skid.

And the Titans nearly did just that, taking a team that had lost just one game all year to the brink, but ultimately fell 46-41 in Fairfax in a spirited contest that featured multiple second-half lead changes.

After six consecutive losses to the Spartans over the last two years, the Titans knew they’d need to be nearly perfect to win. And in the early going it was very much about playing through mistakes for both teams. Nerves played a part as both teams scored just seven points in the first quarter.

“We played hard, our plan to contain Logan Battle was working early on,” said Titans coach Kesha Walton.

But in the second quarter, the Spartans began to take control as their trio of scorers—freshman Amy Berglund (13 points), junior April Robinson (19 points) and junior Logan Battle (11 points)—started to loosen up and hit open shots.

But in the second half, Titans standout forward Jasmine Norman started to take over the game. She drained a fallaway to knot the score at 21-21 early in the third, and then banged  home a layup off of her own miss just minutes later to give her team its first lead, 25-24.

Norman (21 points) was electric, but most of her teammates remained ice cold.

Robinson began to find space in the paint during an 11-4 run that staked the Spartans to a 35-29 lead early in the fourth quarter. Tough defense and turnovers kept the game close throughout the final period.

With just less than three minutes to play, Norman struck again, this time with a huge 3-pointer that reduced the deficit to 41-38.

But the Spartans worked the clock and the Titans would get no closer, as Battle—the tournament MVP—and her teammates possessed the ball and fended off a spirited attack until it was time to get their hands on the trophy.

For the Titans, a team that didn’t even make the regional tournament last year, there was no reason to hang their heads.

“I’ll tell the girls to forget this and we’ll keep moving forward,” Walton said. “Keep your heads up high, we weren’t even ranked in the area, and here we are still playing while a lot of teams are at home that were ranked.”

Norman was already looking ahead to the state tournament, where the Titans will get a chance to avenge the loss.

“The season isn’t over," she said. "It hurts to play them again and lose again, but we’re still playing and we’ve got bigger stakes ahead of us."

Five players from the two teams made the all-tournament squad: Christian Roberts and Norman from T.C. Williams; Berglund, Robinson and Battle from West Springfield.

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