Briar Woods Boys Move On Rest of Ashburn Falls

It was a tough Wednesday night for Ashburn high school basketball teams. The Briar Woods boys were the only local team to advance to the regional semifinals. The top-seeded Stone Bridge girls were upset at home by Robinson, the Briar Woods girls lost at Freedom, and the Broad Run boys were runover by the Potomac Falls Panthers.

The Briar Woods boys (17-9, 12-4 in the district) dominated Fauquier on the road 83-67. Myles Tate led four Falcon scorers who reached double-figures with a game high 31 points. Tonight the Falcons will travel to Potomac Falls to take on a Panther team hitting on all cylinders and aiming for a return to the state championship. The Panthers (25-1, 17-0) crushed Broad Run 86-56 in Wednesday night's quarterfinal, and beat Briar Woods in two prior games this season by a combined 24-points. The Falcons will be looking for revenge when tonight's game tips off at 7 p.m. 

The Briar Woods girls did not fare as well in South Riding. Freedom jumped out to a 10-point halftme lead and never looked back, knocking off the Lady Falcons 58-41. Brittany Gilbert had another strong game for the Falcons, finshing with 15-points, six rebounds and four steals. Jillian Olson also played well and contributed 10 points, eight rebouds and four steals. Briar Woods finished the season with a 14-11 overall record.

The Stone Bridge girls lost a heartbreaking Northern Region semifinal game against Roninson at home 56-46. Despite leading most of the game, the Bulldogs could not recover from a 23-point Robinson outburst in the fourth quarter (complete game coverage coming later).

Congratulations to all the Ashburn teams for their great seasons, and good luck to the Briar Woods boys tonight against Potomac Falls!

[Editor's note: We gambled on where to place our photographers, so our apologies for not having pictures of all the games, especially the winning Falcon boys.]