Boy's Basketball: Handley 65 Wood 44

By David Selig
The Winchester Star

Winchester — While many local high school athletes were likely getting a bit restless with no school and no sports last week, Handley sophomore Robbie Lawler was catching up on his rest.

It turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.

With the status of his injured ankle much improved, Lawler scored a game-high 15 points Saturday as the Judges’ boys’ basketball team blitzed visiting James Wood 65-44, ensuring a tie with Sherando for first place in the final Northwestern District standings. “This is the best I’ve felt in a long time,” said Lawler, who still had an ice bag wrapped on the ankle after the game. “I don’t think I’ve hit a shot in about a couple weeks in a game. So, it felt really good as soon as that first three went in.”

It had actually been 24 days since Lawler — Handley’s second-leading scorer — made a field goal.

That came against Jefferson (W.Va.) on Jan. 20, the night Lawler went down with the injury that forced him to miss the following two games.

Lawler returned to play in Handley’s previous two games before the weather wiped out last week’s schedule, but he was far from 100 percent and scored a total of three points on free throws.

On Saturday, Lawler knocked down four field goals — including two 3-pointers — as the Judges shot 50 percent from the floor (23 for 46).

Despite that strong shooting display, there was plenty of rust shown by both teams. They each turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes and collectively shot 38 percent in the first half.

The Judges (8-8, 5-3 Northwestern) led just 34-31 at that point, but they changed the game in the second half.

Handley picked up its pressure from full court, trapped, and jumped into the passing lanes to break up James Wood’s offensive rhythm.

After allowing the Colonels (8-11, 3-3) to score 20 points in the second quarter, the Judges limited them to 13 points the entire second half.

“We picked it up a little bit,” said Handley coach Tommy Dixon, whose team had 15 steals, six created by point guard Jeremiah Wilson. “We had talked about applying a little bit more pressure. We had a few more bodies out there able to get up and down the court than they did, and I think that helped.”

Both teams were admittedly out of shape. Following the long layoff caused by the snow, the Judges had just returned to the gym for two days of practice, while Wood had only been allowed to get together for one workout heading into the game.

“I saw [the rust Friday] in practice,” Colonels coach Al Smith said. “Our execution was bad, our timing on offense wasn’t good, and a lot of that comes from inactivity.”

In the second half, James Wood made just 4 of 22 shots, and Smith let out a chuckle while trying to pinpoint the reason.

“The stuff we run early in our offense, I don’t know if we forgot about it,” he said. “But we weren’t executing. We have things that can get us easy shots there at the beginning of our offense, but we just weren’t getting to where we needed to be.”

Depth also proved to be a major factor.

Handley got more than half its points (35) from its bench, led by Lawler’s 15, Jaron Carey’s eight and Kenny Griffin’s seven. (Starters Mitch Smith and David Carter each added 12 points, with Carter hauling in 13 rebounds.)

“We had our bench step up tonight,” Mitch Smith said. “Everybody on the bench contributed, which is a big thing for us.”

James Wood got seven points, seven rebounds and two blocks from reserve James Thorne in the second quarter alone, but Thorne had two rebounds and zero points the rest of the way, and the Colonels couldn’t keep up when Handley pushed the pace in the second half.

Brock Lockhart led Wood with 10 points, and Trae Tinsman added seven after sitting out an extended portion of the first half with foul trouble.

The Colonels — who controlled their own destiny to win the outright district title heading into Saturday — have two more regular season games this week, against Skyline and Millbrook. With wins in both, they can finish with the same 5-3 district record as Handley and Sherando, although their two losses to the Judges would hurt in terms of tiebreakers.

A tie for first would still give James Wood an automatic bid into the regional tournament, so there’s plenty left play for, but there won’t be much of a chance to practice before the district tournament begins later this week.

“High school kids — and college kids, for that matter — they’d both rather play than practice. So, they’re all right with that,” Al Smith said. “I would have liked to have a little bit more practice for this game. But, we’ve got Skyline and Millbrook coming up, and they’re both must-wins — as this one was.”

For Handley, Saturday’s senior day win finishes the regular season, allowing the Judges time to get back into the gym and work off some of that rust before the postseason begins.

It also offers a bit of satisfaction for a team that has had an up-and-down season marred by a late start because of football and some key injuries.

“After this season, we don’t have the best record, but to be able to finish at the top of the district is important,” Dixon said. “A lot of things can happen, and a lot of things change when you’re at the top of the district as opposed to being at the bottom of it.”

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