By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager
Even though
Frederick Douglass Eagles basketball player
Eric Washington missed a couple of shots throughout Friday night's
2A South championship game at
River Hill, he kept shooting.
Washington's confidence was unwavering and, for the Eagles, having the highly-confident shooter on the floor turned out to be a wonderful thing.
Washington led the Eagles with a game-high 13 points in Douglass' 36-34 victory over River Hill and aided in clinching the regional title for Douglass.
"I owe everything to my father, my coaches, everybody," Washington said. "They just help me shoot, and they tell me to keep shooting when I get down on myself, and they just keep my confidence level up."
Of those 13 points, six came on two three-point shots in the midst of a Douglass 10-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter.
As River Hill built a 26-21 lead early in the final period of play, Washington hit a three-pointer to cut it down to 26-24 and in turn sparked the 10-0 run.
Only moments later, Washington hit another three to increase the newly-formed Douglass lead to 32-26. The second of the two came directly after a Douglass basket and eventual steal on River Hill's in-bounds pass.
When mentioning Washington's name to Douglass head coach
Tyrone Massenberg, all Massenberg could do was shake his head before speaking.
"I mean that's what he does," the coach said of Washington. "I told him that I would never cut his arm off from shooting. He hasn't really been on fire through the tournament, but he has hit shots at the right time. For him to not be afraid of making shots, or being hesitant, shows his maturity. He definitely stepped up at the right time."
Even with Washington's clutch performance from beyond the arc, a more important factor in the game was the rebounding of the taller Douglass team.
Douglass'
Solomon Fennell (8 points) used that height inside at the appropriate time as Ferrell was fouled on a rebound and put-back basket to give Douglass a 27-26 lead -- also in the midst of the 10-0 run -- after the successful free-throw attempt.
"That was real big," Fennell said of the go-ahead basket. "I felt like we could win it after that."
"That tempo we had near the end of the game is the tempo we were trying to get to," Massenberg said. "But, River Hill is a disciplined team, and they kept us from getting there. ... We just picked the right time to make a run."
Even with the height difference, and being out-rebounded by double digits, River Hill and head coach
Matthew Graves were only down 1 point with 3.1 seconds remaining, but came up just short.
"The kids left it out on the floor," Graves said. "One thing everyone probably noticed is that we were outmatched height wise at every position. ... At the same time, we were getting out-rebounded but we were getting steals, we were scrappy, and we were hanging around.
"Douglass is a very good team. ... They keep playing like they did tonight and they can win a state championship."
Nico Jones and
Trey Ames led the Hawks in scoring as each scored 9 points, respectively.
In just his first year at the helm of the Frederick Douglass Eagles boys' basketball team, Massenberg has already delivered the Eagles a 2A South championship.
But even after Friday night's victory on the road, Massenberg was quick to praise the work of his players, and rightfully so after the team's gutsy performance in the fourth quarter.
"This team had the right focus, they wanted it, and it's not about me," he said. "They really wanted to win tonight, and their will to win came out in the fourth quarter."
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James A. McCray IIIDouglass 36, River Hill 34Douglass -- 8 6 5 17; Washington 13, Fennell 8, Whatey 6, Glover 4, Mays 3, Brandon 1, Bonhom 1
River Hill -- 8 9 5 12; Jones 9, Ames 9, Campanero 8, Ram 6, Eaddy 2