By Stacey Dec
LoCoSports Staff Writer
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Ashburn (January 19, 2016) — On Friday, January 15, the Battle of the Burn basketball edition between Broad Run and Stone Bridge High Schools took place in a varsity double header at Stone Bridge High School, ending with Broad Run leaving both games victorious.
“(We wanted) to hold Jachimowski down,” Broad Run boys head coach John Costello said. “We felt that he’s the guy that makes them go. [We felt] with Barnes hurt, if we could keep him under a certain number of points, that we’d be pretty successful. As a result, he only had ten tonight and he’s a tough player and if we keep him at ten it’s big.”
After many switches in who was leading the game, the Spartans pulled ahead for the final time in the fourth quarter, winning the game 62-53.
“I think our guys had a ridiculously great week,” Costello said. “We lose to Tuscarora last week, and then we go to Potomac Falls and win in overtime, and then come here and beat this team.”
Costello mentioned that he accredits his recent wins to his relatively young starters as few starters are seniors.
“We have one senior that plays and our juniors are playing like seniors,” Coach Costello said. “I couldn’t be any happier for the kids.”
For Broad Run (2-1, 9-7), it was truly a team effort as four players scored double figure points.
Stone Bridge (0-3, 10-5) fought hard coming off back-to-back Conference 14 losses to Briar Woods and Tuscarora, but couldn’t pull a win together without a key player — senior forward Nick Barnes — who is out due to an injury.
“We’ve been struggling, but I thought the kids followed the game plan terrifically,” Stone Bridge head coach Cory Stitzel said. “We took care of what we needed to take care of, but the ball didn’t go into the basket tonight. You can make the game as difficult as you’re going to make it, but if the ball doesn’t go into the basket it’s really a very simple win-or-lose game.”
The Bulldogs missed many shots as Broad Run junior guard Drew Johnson made a series of three pointers. However, the Bulldogs still pushed to the end to give the Spartans a challenge.
“I can’t falter effort,” Stitzel said. “Sometimes I get frustrated by their effort, but tonight it was terrific. I give Broad Run a lot of credit. They were physical, they switched a lot of screens and it bothered us, but tonight we missed shots and we picked the wrong night to do that.”
Now that they’ve lost three games in a row, the Stone Bridge boys looks to alter their gameplay for the next few games.
“We’ve got to get a win. Someway, somehow, we’ve got to find a way to grind out a win,” Stitzel said. “The game of basketball is hard, but the good thing about this is that we’re taking our lumps here the first time through the league, but we get to play all these teams again.”
Lady Spartans cruise after solid start
The girls’ game ended with a Broad Run win of 50-32 after an early series of baskets in the beginning of the game.
“We played well, not our best,” Broad Run girls coach Jaclyn Cummings said. “We have some things that we can improve on going into the next time we play them. We wanted to play our game, not Stone Bridge’s game. We wanted to push the ball and have them play our game.”
Broad Run kept their lead throughout the game, while their defense stayed aggressive.
“Our strongest piece would be our post players,” Cummings said. “I think they got in the game and did their job.”
With over 14 assists for Broad Run, they continued the theme of the night: good team effort.
The Stone Bridge girls (0-3, 4-9) will travel to Potomac Falls on January 19 while the boys host the Panthers. The Broad Run boys will play at Heritage on January 20 while the Lady Spartans (2-1, 7-8) will host the Pride.
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Great article Stacey!