The early season record is not what the Lake Braddock Secondary girls’ basketball team would want at this point in its pre-holiday, early season schedule, but the Bruins could be a better team in the long run for having played stiff completion over the season’s first month.
“We've played some pretty tough non-district opponents so far, including Westfield,” said Lake Braddock head coach Leigh Kampman, whose team was 1-4 going into this week’s action.
“We are 1-0 in the [Patriot] District right now and I believe these first few games against tougher opponents will only help us in the end.”
The district win came on Dec. 10 when the Bruins defeated visiting W.T. Woodson, 58-54. Natalie Butler, a 6-foot-2 inch sophomore forward, led Lake Braddock with 15 points in the win. Other good scoring contributions came from junior guard Hannah Aboulhosn (8 points), freshman guard/forward Marcia Altman (7) and sophomore guard Morgan Stearns (7). Logan Russell, a senior forward, and senior guard Maggie Collins both scored five points in the win, while Caroline Young, a senior guard/forward, and senior forward Shelby Sheridan scored four each. Freshman guard Allie Snow scored three in a Lake Braddock attack which saw nine different players get into the scoring column.
For Woodson (3-3), Keara Finnerty, a sophomore guard, scored a game-high 22 points while sophomore forward Taylor Hayes was also in double figures with 18 points. Also for the Cavaliers, Bryce Debolt, a sophomore guard, scored six points and both Amy Sitts, a junior forward, and sophomore forward Katie Hayes scored four.
Lake Braddock trailed Woodson, 15-9, after one quarter and still trailed by six, 44-38, at the end of three quarters. But the Bruins put things together in the final quarter, outscoring Woodson, 20-10, to earn the comeback win.”
Lake Braddock had opened the season with a pair of losses – 41-29 to visiting Centreville on Dec. 3, and a 53-39 defeat at Herndon on Dec. 7 – before earning its first win over Woodson. But following the victory over the Cavaliers, the Bruins lost their next two games – 41-31 over visiting Westfield, the defending Concorde District champions, on Dec. 14, and 44-23 at Robinson (5-2) last Friday night, Dec. 17. In that loss to the Rams, Russell was the Bruins’ leading scorer with seven points. Robinson, meanwhile, had big games from Tyler Hansen (17 points) and Megan Green (11).
Lake Braddock is working hard to improve. Kampman has had her squad focus on playing solid defense night-in and night-out.
“Every game we focus on the positives and try to build off of them,” said Kampman. “We have different people step up at different times, depending on the match-ups. We really emphasize playing a team game and have focused a lot of our attention on our defense. As I always tell my team, `Defense should never have an off day."
Lake Braddock was scheduled to play its final game prior to the Christmas holiday on Tuesday, Dec. 21 of this week. Over the holidays, Lake Braddock will take part in the Lady Rebels Winter Classic at Fairfax High School from Dec. 28-30.
“I would like to see us win the tournament so we can carry that momentum into district play,” said coach Kampman.
Woodson, meanwhile, will participate at the Mardela Tournament in Mardela Springs, Md., Dec. 29-30. The Cavaliers, under head coach Pat Neri, have wins this season over Washington-Lee, Fairfax High and Lee High. The losses have come to Robinson, Lake Braddock and Mount Vernon.
In Woodson’s win over Lee, a 57-34 home triumph on Dec. 17, Finnerty scored 30 points. Hayes scored 13 for the Cavaliers and Katie added nine points. For Lee (0-4), Megan Cox scored 11 points.
Woodson was scheduled to host T.C. Williams on Tuesday, Dec. 21 in its final game before the holidays.