Craig's Cavaliers Keep Season Alive with Win over South County

W.T. Woodson coach Doug Craig has a lot of kids under his wing these days. He’s got the 15 members of the Cavaliers’ varsity squad, and he’s got two members of his own team. One who just made his debut two weeks ago.

Craig, known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve, his shirt collar, his tie, just about everywhere possible while watching Woodson games from the sideline during the season, softened noticeably when asked about his newborn son.

“I’m tired. I only got two-and-a-half hours of sleep last night,” he said, smiling, after his fourth-seeded Cavaliers knocked off  No. 5 South County 53-42 at home Tuesday night in the Patriot District tournament. “It’s a good tired though. It puts it all in perspective. I would have gone home tonight, win or lose, my newborn doesn’t care.”

Craig, who missed a couple of late-season games to attend to the birth of his son, said taking some time out to be with his family allowed him to give these games the weight they deserve.

“Sometimes we take this stuff so seriously, and at the end of the day, it’s high school basketball,” he said. “You’re just trying to get kids to do well and just teach them the right things.”

Looks like he’s taught the Cavaliers some good things this year – like how to make a free-throw and when to come up with a key 3-pointer.

Craig’s team didn’t play its best game of the year, but it came through with important shots when necessary.

After South County took a 29-28 lead in the third quarter, John Schoof (25 points) and Drew Boehling hit back-to-back threes to regain the advantage at 36-31.  Schoof capped the quarter with a jumper and a driving lay-up to make it 40-33 entering the final frame.

 “When they hit those threes, it just killed us,” said South County senior guard Alex Carrington.

The late-quarter burst covered up a painful stretch of almost five scoreless minutes to open the second-half.

“When two good teams play, sometimes it’s a matter of who makes the shots at the right time,” Craig said.

 “Basketball is a game of runs,” said South County junior forward Marqueice Johnson. “We stopped them from getting their run and we just didn’t get ours in the third quarter.”

Johnson led the Stallions with 20 points and forced Woodson to double and triple-team him late in the game.

But with the Cavaliers focusing their energy down low, the rest of the South County squad wasn’t able to convert open shots from the outside. Big Nik Biberaj hit the Stallions’ lone 3-pointer of the second half at the top of the fourth quarter to cut Woodson’s lead to 40-36.

“When you’re down by seven or eight, you’ve got to make a huge run,” said Stallions’ coach Wendell Johnson. “We’ve got to fight so hard to get back and Woodson, they just had to weather the storm.”

With three minutes to play, after a tip-in that looked like it actually went in off a Woodson player’s hand, the Stallions were only trailing 40-38. After Woodson’s David Nosal split a pair of free-throws (the last one the Cavaliers would miss all night) Biberaj put back a missed shot, and the Woodson lead was one, 41-40.

But Brandon Stepka found an open Nosal inside to increase the lead to three, and Schoof began a string of eight consecutive Woodson free throws  to make it 45-40 with just under two minutes to play. A shot at any time by the Stallions might have changed the game, but they went cold from the field. Jumpers were off the mark, inside shots were contested and a few desperation threes clanged off the rim. Each time Woodson got a rebound, the player would get fouled and calmly hit his free throws on the other end of the court. With 25 seconds to play, the Cavs were up 51-42.

“I didn’t think we shot the free throws well early, but we made ‘em when they counted,” said Craig.

The Cavaliers will face T.C. Williams at Lake Braddock in the semifinal of the district tournament on Thursday night. With an appearance in the district semifinals, Woodson also earns a ticket into the Northern Region's tournament.

“We’ll be ready to play,” Craig said.