Ashburn, Va. — For the last few years, Greg Spurlock has been too unselfish. But, now, after years of convincing, the 6-foot-5 point guard is showing why he’s one of the most lethal scorers in Loudoun County. Spurlock put his scoring prowess on display as he dropped a game-high 29 points, leading the Rock Ridge Phoenix past Potomac District foe Potomac Falls, 72-52, on January 4 in Ashburn.
“Greg has been too unselfish to start the season. That’s just his nature. For the last two years, we’ve had to hammer him, ‘Shoot more. Shoot more. Shoot more,’” Rock Ridge head coach Jason Geyer said. “Today, he did that and was able to lead us.”
The game started with an 8-0 Phoenix run as Spurlock and co. forced a few Potomac Falls’ turnovers and scored in transition.
“We like our athleticism. We like our length. Tonight, we gave them some trouble,” Geyer said. “But we’re not going to be able to give them trouble next time. They’re going to be ready. They always are.”
The Panthers quickly emptied their bench and rallied to cut the deficit to 14-12. But just when it looked like things were trending Potomac Falls’ way, Rock Ridge senior shooting guard Nico Martirossian knocked down three-pointers on back-to-back trips down court to expand the Phoenix lead to 20-14 heading into the second quarter.
“Nobody’s really playing their best basketball, so you kind of have to gut it out,” Geyer said. “I thought today was the first game we got contributions from everybody.”
Then as the second quarter started, Spurlock unleashed.
“Steph Curry’s game last night inspired me to just shoot. Even if it wasn’t falling early, I just wanted to shoot so I could get going,” said Spurlock, who was named an All-LoCo honorable mention in 2019-2020. “Luckily, my shot started falling early which helped for the rest of the game.”
In the second quarter alone, Spurlock scored twice from inside, twice from beyond the arc, and twice again from the free throw line as the Phoenix extended their lead to 35-24 at the half.
Potomac Falls came into the second half at full speed and quickly cut the Rock Ridge lead to just 3 at 38-35. However, at that point, Spurlock started spreading the wealth around as five different Phoenix contributed in the third quarter, setting up a 49-41 start to the fourth.
In the fourth, Spurlock once again turned on his Curry-mentality, adding 9 points to help the Phoenix pull away with the bounce back win following a tough overtime loss to John Champe on January 2.
“[Champe] was a test for us to gauge where we are. I think we’re close to where we want to be,” Geyer said. “We’re hit or miss too often. We have to be consistent and show up if we’re going to be one of the top teams. If we’re consistent, we can be really good.”
Rock Ridge (3-1, 3-2) currently sits in second place in the Potomac District and will look to stay consistent when they host Freedom on January 8 while Potomac Falls (1-2, 1-3) will look to rebound at home against Woodgrove on January 6.
“We have a lot of experienced guys and everyone knows what they have to do to help the team out,” Spurlock said. “The last few years we’ve been hunting people, so it feels good being hunted.”
Mike Ferrara captured 190+ photos at the game…
Rock Ridge Stats
| Rock Ridge | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Greg Spurlock | 29 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5-for-6 |
| Nick Ondrus | 13 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Nico Martirossian | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3-for-4 |
| Mason Hudson | 8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4-for-5 |
| Sam Larsen | 4 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Evan Fitch | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Ted Gale | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Basit Qadri | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Matt Humphrise | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Garrett Donaldson | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Felix Carlson | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Marlon Adadey | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Rushil Mittal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 72 | 23 | 11 | 15 | 1 | 19-for-27 |
Potomac Falls Stats
| Potomac Falls | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Jacob Mancuso | 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4-for-6 |
| Aidan Carrillo | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3-for-4 |
| Elijah Adegbenro | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Liban Farah | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Jalen Jackson | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-1 |
| Ryan Miles | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Rico Brown | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Kyle Ables | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Nolan Levenhagen | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2-for-2 |
| Aidan Apietu | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Owen Copeland | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Mitch Laurenson | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Justin Opiola | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Mark Delaney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 52 | 28 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 10-for-15 |
