South Lakes Basketball Falls At Chantilly On An Emotional Senior Night For The Chargers

By BRIAN McNICOLL

After a season of ups and downs, the South Lakes High boys basketball team finally had a game on Friday night that it could more or less expect to win.

The Seahawks had finally gotten level – 10-10 overall, 4-3 in the Concorde – after victories over Madison and Oakton, the second-best team in the district, earlier in the week. The Chargers came in 4-16, 1-7 in the league and losers of five straight.

But it was Senior Night at Chantilly, and a raucous student body turned out in support, led by faux “sportscasters” who were lined up courtside with headphones, mics and network logos.

The Chargers fed off that enthusiasm from the start, built a double-digit lead by early in the second quarter then hung on for a 51-48 victory that led to a court-storming by those students.

But it wasn’t the students who beat South Lakes. It was a gosh-awful shooting night – 12-for-21 from the free throw line, which had been a Seahawks strength in recent weeks; 16-for-52 overall from the floor and 1-for-19 from three.

“I’m not surprised by what happened here,” said South Lakes Coach Mike Desmond, a Chantilly alum. “When we follow the instructions, we’re pretty successful. When we don’t, we’re not.”

That included the instruction Desmond gave in the Oakton game to avoid 3-point shots because the Seahawks have not had much success with them. On Friday night, sophomore Emerson Finney made one with 2:15 left in the first quarter to bring South Lakes within 11-9, and the Seahawks never hit another one.

They did hang around thanks to some good halfcourt offense. The Seahawks scored seven baskets on pick-and-rolls and similar plays – four by 6-5 junior Jayden Edwards, who finished with nine points, second on the team in the scoring to Makhai Ramos, who had 12.

“I had to get out of my head and get to the right spots,” Edwards said after the game. “There are going to be games like this when our shots aren’t falling, and this is how we have to score.”

South Lakes recovered from yet another slow start to get it to 11-9. But Chantilly then pushed the lead to 21-11 and led by nine at halftime. South Lakes closed to within 30-25 with three minutes left in the third quarter, but Brady Theis, the senior forward who is one of South Lakes’ most consistent offensive performers, got his fourth foul, then got called for a technical, which meant he had fouled out.

Chantilly made all four free throws to push the lead to nine, and South Lakes fell behind by as many as 12 late in the third quarter.

But in the fourth quarter, South Lakes got back within 47-46 on two free throws from Ramos. But Chantilly’s Sahas Manchireddy scored inside, and the Seahawks could not catch up.

Desmond wondered aloud if a successful week had worked against his team. “I think we had some people who were front-runners, who thought us winning two games this week meant we had turned some kind of corner,” he said.

“We’re not special. We have to work very hard to win every night. Westfield is good, but the rest of us … we’re not. Anyone can beat anyone any given day. We have to concentrate. We draw a play … all five heads nod, then we don’t run that play for four possessions.”