Cavs Win Thriller over Atoms

Woodson’s John Schoof had Annandale defenders off balance all night Thursday, and he knew it. That knowledge came in handy at the most crucial point of the game.

After a layup by Karl Ziegler off an inbounds play put the Atoms up one with 4.7 seconds left, Schoof pushed the ball up the floor, gave a slight head-fake to get his man up in the air, and leaned in to draw a foul and three free throws with no time left on the clock.

He only needed the first two, as the senior drained them both to give the Cavaliers (12-8, 7-5) a huge 50-49 win on Annandale’s (13-6, 8-4) home floor, getting a measure of revenge after the Atoms went to Fairfax and handed Woodson a loss last month.

“They were up on me the whole game,” Schoof said. “I knew if I just showed them the ball, they’d be up in the air.”

Just four seconds earlier, it appeared Annandale was going to score a win that would have guaranteed the Atoms a home game in the first round of the Patriot District tournament. Annandale trailed 48-47 with 6.7 seconds left on the clock. Coach Anthony Harper called a timeout and drew up an inbounds play from underneath the Woodson basket.

His Atoms ran the play beautifully, as Ziegler set a screen for D’Angelo Boyce, and when both defenders went with Annandale’s star guard, Ziegler rolled to the hoop for an easy bucket.

The stage was then set for Schoof’s heroics.

“We just gave the ball to our best player, [Boyce] was harassing him, he felt the contact, he leaned in and got the shot off,” acting Woodson head coach Durmia Marshall said. “That’s what happens when you’ve got good players like that.”

That same harassing defense, while fatal in the game’s final seconds, got the Atoms back in the game. Woodson raced out to a 17-4 lead early in the second quarter before Annandale’s full-court pressure took the Cavaliers out of their offensive rhythm.

“Part of it was our pressure on the ball,” said Annandale coach Anthony Harper. “They were able to make passes off their Princeton cuts, and we weren’t helping from the backside. We got that straightened out at halftime.”

Annandale took its first lead of the game in the third quarter, and actually led for most of the fourth. Woodson junior Mark Noe airballed a three from the corner and then shot another off the side of the backboard, drawing chants of “airball” from the Annandale student section each time he touched the ball.

He eventually made them eat their words.

On Woodson’s very next possession after Noe’s wayward 3-point attempt, he took a pass from Schoof and made a nice reverse layup. Two possessions later, he drilled a three from that same corner to put the Cavs up by one.

“I try to block them out as much as I can, but when there’s a whole student section screaming my name it’s kind of hard,” Noe said. “I shut them up.”

Schoof led the Cavaliers with 16 points, and also added seven rebounds. Noe had 14 points, while forward David Nosal owned the glass again, pulling down 10 boards.

The Cavaliers expect head coach Doug Craig back when they host West Potomac Tuesday. Craig has missed the last two games after the birth of his child.