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Mount Vernon seniors Robert Coleman and Kyle Ricks -- joined by junior Skylar Jones -- talk about their win and unbeaten National District season.
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By Jeffery Gibert
West Potomac Senior, DigitalSports Intern

On a night honoring seniors Kyle Ricks (15 points), Robert Coleman (15 points), Brian Green (seven points), and Derek Pruitt, Mount Vernon held off Yorktown, 77-70, to close out the regular season undefeated in the National District.

"We just knew that we had to come into this game and win,” Coleman said. "Go 12 and 0 in the district, and look forward to the district tournament ... and win it."

The Majors jumped out to a quick start. 

Ricks and junior Skylar Jones (18 points) combined for nine first quarter points as Mount Vernon held a 16-9 lead after one period.

The Majors tightened their defense to start the second quarter, holding the Patriots scoreless through nearly half of the period and extending their lead to around 15 points.

"We played good help defense,"  Jones said.

But Yorktown found its shooting touch. 

Seniors Kyle Toulouse (13 points), Will Carey (15 points), and Simon Kilday hit three of the Patriots' 10 3-pointers on the night, and pulled Yorktown within nine points with just a few seconds left in the half. But Mount Vernon's Green hit a 3-pointer of his own to push the Majors' lead back to double-digits, 36-24, going into intermission.

The Majors were rolling to begin the third quarter with Jones tallying six quick points, but the resilient Patriots had another surge to close this quarter, too. 

Kilday recorded 12 of his game-high 25 points in the quarter, bringing his team within seven points in the closing seconds. But again the Majors hit them with a taste of their own medicine, a late 3-pointer by Coleman this time.

Hit by another dagger, Yorktown was still undeterred. 

They had a quick 5-0 run to begin the quarter, while scoring on their first five possessions to pull within three points. But Ricks was not going to have his Senior Night spoiled.  He got tough buckets when needed.

"Everybody was giving me the ball and they had a smaller person on me," Ricks said. "I had to just take it up and just get big. Today my free throws were going down, so I was just knocking them down."

But Yorktown was still relentless. They pulled within a single score multiple times in the last two minutes with the last time occurring with :12 remaining. 

They were down by three, but Mount Vernon's Coleman made sure that there would be no overtime when he stole a lazy pass to seal the game.

"We've been in situations like this the whole season," Coleman said. "It doesn't bother us."