By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Manager
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area

In the tightly-packed Liberty District standings, no team is safe in its position for more than 24 hours.

And when the Warhawks played twice in that span Friday night and Saturday afternoon -- against the Bulldogs and Seahawks -- the league standings were prone to a shake-up.

After a win over Stone Bridge just 14 hours prior, Madison held off South Lakes at home, 57-43, in a Saturday matinee to force a three-way atop the Liberty District.

"We lost to both these teams earlier in the season," Warhawk senior Will Clarkson said. "Usually, it's tough playing two games straight, but we beat Stone Bridge and handled South Lakes. Hopefully we keep rolling with McLean and Langley next week."

Added Madison coach Chris Kuhblank, whose team won the Liberty District in 2006: "We're trying to get the No. 1 seed, so we can get that automatic region bid. Even though you don't get a bye, but you're automatically in Regionals.

"That's what we're going to do: We're going to go down swinging."

On Saturday, though, the Warhawks were looking for the first-round knockout.

Madison held South Lakes to just four first-quarter points -- on one field goal -- to open up an immediate 12-point lead, which it never relinquished.

The Warhawks are second in the Northern Region in points per game allowed -- at 47.3 -- trailing only the Saxons -- who allow 47.1 points -- and have had the last three Liberty District defensive players of the year.

"Two big home victories, we're doing it at home and doing it with defense," said Kuhblank, whose team is tied with South Lakes and Woodson and leads fourth-place Langley by just one game. "That's the only way we can survive and this is the type of game we needed, a low-scoring battle where we execute on offense.

"We tried to make it difficult for them to get a good shot."

Offensively, meanwhile, the Warhawks had little trouble getting a good look.

They drove to the basket at will during stretches and took advantage of Clarkson's ability to get critical second-chance points around the basket.

Four of his game-high 11 rebounds came on the offensive end, and all four resulted in second-chance scores.

Clarkson also scored a game-high 17 points.

"Will is a first-team all-district player guaranteed," said Kuhblank of Clarkson, who was shooting 62-percent from the field entering Saturday. "He's leading the district in scoring and we don't score very much."

Added Clarkson: "That's what it's all about, playing hard and getting rebounds ... You get a missed shot, they could get a rebound, go to the other end and score.

"But if you get an offensive rebound, get a put back and score, it's a big momentum changer."

No play altered the momentum -- for good -- like Warhawk senior Omi Ogolo's three-quarter-court heave to end the third quarter.

South Lakes in-bounded the ball under the Madison basket with 9.8 seconds remaining with an opportunity to cut its deficit to single digits. But after the shot rattled off the rim and Ogolo skied for a defensive rebound, he turned and took one dribble before launching from his own 3-point line.

The shot -- with a surprisingly low trajectory -- hit nothing but net, sending the Warhawk supporters into a frenzy and Ogolo into the arms of coaches and the team bench.

He finished with 15 points and hit two of his three 3-point attempts, including his miracle make.

"We got the rebound and with one second left, I just threw it up," said Ogolo, who also had five steals. "That put us up 14 going into the fourth quarter. It felt pretty good.

"I might mess around and try it in practice once in a while. Coach gets mad when I do it, but I just throw up some shots. I guess it worked out today."

Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com


South Lakes   4   10  17  12   --   43
Madison        16  14  15  12   --   57

South Lakes -- Williams 6 2-3 15; Kerr 3 0-0 8; Hulum 3 0-2 6; Price 2 0-1 4; Shaheedian 1 2-2 4; Harvey 1 0-0 2; Shipp 1 0-0 2; Spicer 1 0-0 2. Team totals: 18 4-8 43.
Madison -- Clarkson 7 3-5 17; Ogolo 3 7-10 15; Reichl 3 4-4 11; Swinley 3 0-0 7; Hilburn 3 0-1 7. Team totals: 19 14-20 57.
Three pointers -- South Lakes 3 (Kerr 2, Williams); Madison 5 (Ogolo 2, Reichl, Hilburn, Swinley).