So they meet again

By David Selig
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — There’s something about facing James Wood that gets Sherando senior Phil Root particularly excited.

In football, Root had a key interception against the Colonels in this fall’s Region II Division 4 semifinals.

Saturday night, his steal and three-point play in the final minute lifted the Warriors to a 64-61 win over Wood in the Northwestern District basketball final.

Root will get yet another chance to face the cross-county rivals in a Region II Division 4 quarterfinal tonight at 7:45 — one of six regional quarterfinal games featuring local teams.

“I love playing James Wood,” Root said Saturday when asked about the rematch. “[I’m] very excited. We like that.”

In other regional action, Handley’s girls host William Monroe in a 6 p.m. Division 3 quarterfinal, which will be followed by another familiar matchup — the Judges’ boys against Skyline.

Clarke County’s boys face Central for a third time this season, hosting the Falcons in a Division 2 quarterfinal at 7 p.m.

Clarke’s girls play in a Division 2 quarterfinal Wednesday at Dan River, and James Wood’s girls travel to Loudoun County today for a 7 p.m. tip-off. But, if Saturday was any indication, the marquee game will be in Stephens City, where the boys from Wood and Sherando will clash for the fourth time this season.

The Warriors (11-10), seeded third in the region, beat Wood 64-56 Jan. 9, but the sixth-seeded Colonels (10-13) won the regular season rematch Jan. 22.

James Wood raced out to a 17-point lead with 1:49 remaining in the first half Saturday, before Sherando fought back with a 20-4 run in the first 5:05 of the third quarter to regain the lead.

A classic all-district showdown between James Bowens (19 points) and Player of the Year Trae Tinsman (21) wasn’t settled until Bowens picked off Tinsman’s long inbounds pass with 2.9 seconds left.

That allowed the Warriors to celebrate their first district tournament title since 2002, but it shouldn’t allow them to get too overconfident — especially considering the road team won each of the first three meetings.

“We know that they’ll make some adjustments, and we’ll make some adjustments too,” Sherando coach Garland Williams said. “Just because we won doesn’t mean that everything’s rosy rosy. We definitely need to look at those things that we did wrong that caused us to be down and keep working hard.”

In particular, the Warriors know they probably don’t have the luxury of getting off to another slow start. (They also needed to erase a 10-point deficit Friday against Skyline just to get to the district final.)

“We can’t come out like we did in the first half,” Root said. “We can’t be [doing] that anymore. We have to come out like we did in the second half and go hard for four quarters.”

Handley’s boys (8-9), the fourth seed in Division 3, would much rather repeat their first game against No. 5 Skyline (8-11) than the second.

The Judges cruised 70-45 when the teams met Jan. 5, but the Hawks scored their first ever win over Handley, 65-63, on Jan. 28.

Clarke County’s boys opened their season with a 20-point loss at Central, but the Eagles (13-7) won a rematch 63-59 on Jan. 11 and have home-court advantage tonight as the No. 4 seed in Division 2.

Handley’s girls (12-8) are the fourth seed in Division 3, and a win over visiting William-Monroe tonight will get the Judges a fourth meeting with top-seeded and unbeaten Millbrook. (The Pioneers are the only local team to have a bye into the semifinals.)

The Judges gave the Pioneers (17-0) their toughest test of the district season in Saturday’s final, but Millbrook still won by 20.

James Wood’s girls couldn’t get past Handley in Friday night’s district semifinal, but the Colonels (6-14) got the No. 6 seed in Division 4, meaning a trip to Loudoun County, which was ranked No. 2 in Group AA in the final regular season poll released last week.

Clarke County’s girls have also qualified for the Division 2 quarterfinals, but the No. 6-seeded Eagles (10-11) don’t play until Wednesday, when they visit No. 3 Dan River.

It all adds up to a busy playoff schedule for local teams, and while several games feature rematches, there’s no question that these are the ones that mean the most.

“Next [game] is win or go home,” James Wood boys’ coach Al Smith said. “It matters a lot.”

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