Sports
Stone Bridge Girls Grab District Basketball Title
Guzek scores 10 and Tiernan is named tournament's outstanding player.
Even during the darkest moments of a dismal 3-19 season during his first year as the Stone Bridge girls varsity coach just two years ago, Chris Jones believed that his team could play. The team validated his conviction Friday night as it captured the first ever girls district title, dethroning Madison, the defending champions, 45-41 at the Wendell G. Byrd Arena in Reston.
“Tonight showed that our program is back,” Jones said after the game. After the game, teammates exchanged hugs as Queen’s “We are the Champions” blasted from the arena’s P.A. system.
“When I first got here, everyone laughed at the girls basketball program,” Jones said. “Our seniors, they went through a sophomore season of 3-19, so for them to now go 23-3 and win it all, that is a credit to them, and we just hope to keep building on it.”
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The Bulldogs raced out to an early 9-2 advantage to start the game, and completely shut down the Madison offense early on, yielding just five points in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, senior guard Cori Prince (8 points) drained a 3-pointer to give her team a commanding 18-8 lead. But Madison, backed by a large, vocal student section, roared back with a 13-3 run — behind the sharp-shooting of sophomore guards- Megan Henshaw (13 points), and Megan LeDuc (12).
Stone Bridge’s Muriel Tiernan (9 points), spent much of the first half on the bench with foul trouble. But when she was in the game, she was dangerous, as was her replacement, freshman Megan Della-Penna.
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“Della-Penna really stepped up for us tonight, with Murielle in foul trouble, we needed others to contribute and they did,” Jones said.
Kayleigh Guzek also had a good game, leading the Bulldogs with 10 points.
The score was knotted at 21 heading into the half, but the Bulldogs took the early initiative after the break, with a 9-2 run that put them up 30-23. The second half could only be characterized as a flat-out street fight, as players from both teams battled for every ball, loose or not.
But just as it looked like Stone Bridge might pull away and win in a rout, the Warhawks fought back, pulling to within one at 34-33.
Senior forward Sarah Schrock made a nice move to the hoop, drew the foul, and hit both free throws. With just under three minutes to play, the Warhawks had a chance to tie the game, but Cori Prince came up with a big steal to deflate Madison’s momentum.
On the ensuing possession, the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-4 center Hannah Beth Whitaker was fouled and went to the line with her team up by two with less than two minutes to play. The entire Madison student section moved a section over en masse, in an apparent attempt to distract the shooter.
Whitaker made one of the two shots, amidst a chorus of dog barks, to give her team a lead that it would not relinquish at 37-34. Stone Bridge shot 13 of 18 from the free throw line for the game, and was 6-8 down the stretch to ice their first district championship.
“Tenacious is the perfect description for this team,” Jones said after the win. “We might not be the most skilled, and we’re not the biggest, but we play hard and we don’t want to lose. They really wanted this tonight.”
Murielle Tiernan was named the tournament’s outstanding player, while Cori Prince, Megan Henshaw, and Megan LeDuc were named to the all-tournament team, along with Kylee Murphree of Fairfax and Lisa Murphy of McLean
“That was our goal from the beginning of the season: to win districts. That’s what we’ve been working toward all season, last year we started to turn things around, and this year we knew we’d be even stronger and would be able to beat the top teams,” Tiernan said, after cutting down a portion of the net, and right before heading off to grab a celebratory Frosty from Wendy’s for the second night in a row.
After a team celebration at the coach’s house on Sunday night, the team will be right back in action against Hayfield in the first round of the regional tournament on Monday night.
[Correction: The individual scoring totals in this story have been corrected. Guzek led the Bulldogs with 10 points, while Tiernan scored 9.]
