Handley boys hand Wood first district loss in rout

WINCHESTER — It was pretty evident early in the week just how much the James Wood boys’ basketball team wanted to beat Handley.

It was abundantly clear throughout Friday night’s game that the Judges had no intention of letting that happen.

In a battle for first place in the Class 4 Northwestern District, Handley never trailed in a 77-52 thumping of the Colonels at the Judges’ Maddex-Omps Gymnasium.

The Judges (7-7, 4-1 district) jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led by as much as 10 points in the first quarter (17-7, led 17-12 after one quarter); 19 points in the second quarter (40-21, led 40-27 at the half); 23 points in the third quarter (56-33, led 59-41 after three quarters); and 27 points in the fourth quarter (77-50) in handing the Colonels their first district defeat.

James Wood (5-5, 3-1) lost for third time in four days, each by double digits. Led by senior guard Emerson Fusco (27 points), the Judges won for the fifth time in their last six games.

Friday was “Douglas Bulldogs Night” at Handley. More than 30 alumni of the Douglas School — which was located in Winchester and educated city children as well as those in Frederick and Shenandoah counties from 1927-66 — made their way onto Thomas Dixon Court to be recognized at halftime of the boys’ game. That took place after a speech about the history of the Douglas School that included descriptions of the school’s numerous athletic accomplishments.

Both the Handley boys and girls wore blue and white Douglas School replica uniforms instead of their standard maroon and white jerseys. Though the players for the 100-year-old school had a different look, the execution and effort was pretty familiar for a Judges team that has been on a roll for three weeks now.

It was a packed house on Friday, and Handley coach Zach Harrell-Zook felt his team fed off it.

“[With] the Douglas component, it was a truly historic event,” Harrell-Zook said. “The kids felt the gym, the energy, the charisma, the compassion from the community. From the tip tonight, they just played with heart, played with passion, and they gave it everything they could. I’m really proud of them.”

Fusco said he was definitely looking forward to Friday’s game after reading about James Wood’s desire to beat Handley.

“[Talking like that is] going to make it a fight,” Fusco said. “Because the other team is going to be mentally prepared to beat them.”

Harrell-Zook said he liked Handley’s aggressiveness from the start.

“They started the game out in zone, so we went with a shooter-heavy lineup to try and shoot them out of it,” Harrell-Zook said. “But also our mindset was, make or miss, push [the ball] before their zone sets up. And I thought we did a very effective job of doing that early.

“Once they went man, we spread the floor out and we felt like our guards could create or get by at any positions from a guard standpoint. We just spread the floor out, tried to get middle drives and lay it in, kick it to the shooter, dump it down to the big. Just make the best play available.”

Fusco — who made 12 of his field goal attempts — was particularly successful in attacking the basket. Whether he was drawing contact or not, he repeatedly finished on his drives into the paint. He scooped in shots off the glass, pulled up for jumpers, found teammates after drawing defensive attention, and had a few putbacks of teammates’ missed shots. Fusco came into Friday averaging 15.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

“It’s pretty tough to guard me one on one, because I will blow by you,” Fusco said. “And if you bring help, or if you do manage to stay on defense with me, I have other players I can swing the ball to. I have a lot of players, if I give them the ball, I trust them to shoot.”

The depth of Handley — which had seven players score between 5 and 9 points on Friday — is impressive.

The Judges were in foul trouble for the start (seven fouls in the first quarter en route to 24 for the game), and several players wound up sitting for lengthy stretches. But Handley’s level of play never really dropped off no matter who was on the floor, and as a result they could apply as much as pressure as they wanted on offense and defense.

The Colonels made only 14 of 45 shots (31 percent) over the last three quarters. Jared Neal (12 points) was the only James Wood player to score in double figures for the game. Harrell-Zook was pleased that Handley held James Wood post players Ashton Kees (eight points) and Chris Morrison (six points) in check.

“The game plan was definitely to pressure their guards, and make the guards have to make all the decisions and all the plays for them,” Harrell-Zook said.

The only real letdown for Handley came when it gave up six unanswered points in the last 11 seconds of the first half, surrendering points off an a James Wood offensive rebound and steal as part of that stretch. But the Judges opened the second half with a 12-3 run for a 52-30 lead, and the Colonels could never make a significant dent in that lead.

“That was the probably the harshest I’ve ever been on a team with a 13-point lead at halftime,” Harrell-Zook said. “But I reminded the guys [James Wood] is tired, we’ve got our foot on the pedal, it’s time to smash it the floor.”

James Wood lost to Woodgrove 68-26 on Tuesday and Meridian 58-42 on Wednesday before Friday’s game.

“These are three great teams that we’ve played,” Colonels coach Tim Wygant said. “Three great teams that did a very good job of speeding us up more than what we like. I know we can play with all three of them.

“We struggled a little bit from the free throw line, struggled a little bit from the field the last few games. This one was actually the best one we’ve played in terms of shooting from the field outside of the paint. We [missed out] on a lot of points close in tonight, and a lot of points at the free throw line.”

The Colonels only made 12 of 31 free throw attempts against Handley.

Wygant said James Wood is hungry to regroup.

“We’re going to fix it,” Wygant said. “We’re going to continue to compete and work hard. No one is going to doubt these kids’ resolve. They’ve worked hard the entire time, from the first starter to the last guy on the bench. We knew this season was going to test us, and I think games like the last couple push us to where we need to be in February.”

Jaevon Brisco and Ryan Pratt each had nine points for Handley, which hosts Skyline on Monday. James Wood next plays on Monday at Central.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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