Colonels notch 1st win

By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star

Winchester — When Battlefield High School coach Al Ford saw James Wood coach Al Smith after the game in the hallway outside the lockerrooms of Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium, he couldn’t help but break into a smile.

“I’m over here praising you man,” Ford said. “That was a good move putting some longer guys at the top of the 1-3-1, snuffing us out. That was a good call.”

By putting itself in the perfect defensive position for a number of critical possessions, the Colonels were the ones with the biggest smiles Friday night. James Wood’s 16th steal of the night with 3.8 seconds remaining preserved a two-point lead, and the Colonels went on a 69-65 victory, their first of the season. Trae Tinsman — who scored a game-high 27 points — tipped the ball while behind Battlefield’s Evan Payton to point guard Chris Skinner (18 points), who was fouled and hit two free throws to lock up the non-district win.

After losing their first two games to Broad Run (91-42) and Loudoun County (74-42) Smith finally got the performance he was looking for from the Colonels (1-2).

“We played one good quarter against Broad Run last Thursday, and we really took it to them,” Smith said. “One quarter. And what I told them was, ‘If we play like that for four quarters, we’re going to be a hard team to play against.’ And tonight, I thought we had four quarters of that effort.”

A matchup 2-3 zone and a 1-3-1 defense led to 24 Battlefield turnovers. Thanks to one of their 16 steals, the Colonels finally took the lead for the first time since they held a 25-24 advantage with four and a half minutes left in the second quarter.

Battlefield (0-4), which never led by more than five points, led 61-58 with 1:37 remaining in the game after a Kevin Bonsu free throw. But after a running scoop shot by Garrett Cunningham (11 points) cut the Bobcats lead to one, Brock Lockhart — playing basketball for the first time since he was a freshman — made his first big impact play of the season after making so many during football.

Lockhart left his feet to pick off a cross-court pass near midcourt. As soon as he touched the floor, he fired ahead to a streaking Tinsman to the right of the basket. Tinsman cut back left and spun in an acrobatic layup while drawing contact for a foul. Tinsman pumped his arms as the crowd yelled its approval, then hit the ensuing free throw for a 63-61 lead with 1:12 left.

Tinsman said he started cutting to the basket once he saw Lockhart had a good chance of making the steal, which was his team-high fifth.

“It was a great pass and a great play from Brock,” said Tinsman, who added four steals of his own.

James Wood’s defense and Tinsman’s heroics weren’t done, in large part because of James Wood’s free-throw shooting.

The Colonels led 65-63 after Battlefield hit two free throws with 45 seconds left, and the Bobcats put James Wood at the line six more times over the next 35 seconds. The Colonels (21 of 37 for the game) made just two of them, allowing Battlefield a chance to send the game into overtime when they inbounded the ball trailing 67-65 with 10.1 seconds remaining.

The Bobcats rolled the ball to guard Evan Payton, who led Battlefield with 18 points. But he never had a chance to make it 20. After flying past Tinsman in the backcourt, he tried to split two defenders once he got past midcourt. But Tinsman tipped the ball from behind, and Skinner’s two free throws iced the win.

Tinsman’s steal was the last big play from a team that tried to be one step ahead of Battlefield all night.

“That was a very quick team,” said Smith, whose team made 15 turnovers, including just three in the second half. “I saw them play Stuart in Falls Church, and they played the whole game full-court, pressure defense in your face. When they got out of their pressure defense in the first quarter, that told me we doing a good job taking care of the basketball.”

What impressed Smith most was how James Wood took care of its composure.

“They didn’t quit and we didn’t quit,” Tinsman said. “We just came out on the upper end.”

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