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Bruins Win Second Consecutive Northwest Crown
By Paul Frommelt
Prince William County Content Editor
As they tend to do during this time of year, Forest Park head coach Rebecca Tillett and her husband, Brett, were talking about the Bruins. The second-year coach of the Forest Park girls basketball team was preparing to defend the Bruins’ Northwest Region championship against Stonewall Jackson on Friday night. Brett, a former football star at Chancellor High School and William & Mary, offered some insight.
“You want the big games, you wait for this moment,” Tillett’s husband said. “With kids like this, with every year they are playing in these big
games, they look forward to this and it seems like a long wait to get
back to this time.”
The long wait was well worth it for the Bruins, as they claimed their second consecutive region crown with 75-56 win over the Raiders at home on Friday night, behind 39 points from senior Danni Jackson. One of four seniors playing in their final game on their home court, Jackson, the 2009 Cardinal District player of the year, had a little more bounce in her step on Friday night.
“I really just felt if my emotions were high and up, it would catch on
with everyone else,” said Jackson. “Just make everybody else want to play harder. The
energy just came out of everyone tonight.”
“What can you say about Danni? She is a phenomenal point guard,” said Tillett. “She is
an emotional leader. We feed off of everything that she does.”
The Bruins’ 19-point victory belies how close the game was for the first two quarters. Behind four three-pointers in the first quarter by Cedar Run District player of the year Kyani White, the Raiders jumped out to a 20-9 lead.
“Stonewall came out with a hot hand. Samantha [Jordan] and Kyani were just hitting everything,” said Tillett. “We didn’t felt like our defense was poor, they were just on fire.”
The Bruins, who beat Stonewall 52-41 earlier in the year, were not worried.
“It was the first quarter,” said Jackson with a big smile. “We weren’t really worried. We knew that they
were going to come out hot because they can really shoot. We just had
to keep our composure.”
By the end of the first quarter, the Raiders’ lead was down to five points. Midway through the second, the lead was gone.
“We felt that if we continue to play defense and continued to play our
defense, those shots would get harder to make,” said Tillett. “I thought our kids did a great
job of facing that adversity and attacking right back.”
After briefly taking a break from guarding White, Forest Park senior Shayla Drakeford came back with renewed intensity on the Stonewall star. White, who finished with a team-high 23 points, was held scoreless in the second and third quarters.
“We knew that they were going to make runs on us,” said Tillett. “If they make a run, we have to counter that run and I think that is what we did.”
Fellow senior Gerda Gatling finished with 12 points for the Bruins, while freshman Lexi Carpenter added seven. Stonewall’s Jordan added 12 points to White’s 23, while sophomore Joy Caracciolo chipped in 10.
Both teams move onto the Group AAA VHSL state tournament, with the Bruins hosting the Eastern Region runner-up on Saturday at Freedom High School. The Raiders will travel to the Eastern Region champion.
Two-For-Two: Tillett, who took over for former Forest Park head coach Chrissy Kelly two years ago, has won a Northwest Region title in each of first two seasons with the Bruins. “Last year, it was such a fast-moving season for me and I’m not sure that we ever had time to breathe,” she said. “This year, I am able to savior it a little bit more, maybe for the rest of the evening, and then turn our focus to what comes next.”
All-Star Squads: The game featured five athletes who are committed to play at the next level: Bruin seniors Danni Jackson (George Washington), Gerda Gatling (Stoney Brook) and Briana Scott (Georgia Southern), as well as Stonewall senior Samantha Jordan (Layfayett) and junior Kyani White (Virginia Tech).
Email: pfrommelt@digitalsports.com
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
FOREST PARK (75) — Jackson 12 10-13 39; Gatling 5 1-2 12; Carpenter 2 3-4 7; Kruse 2 1-1 6; Scott 2 0-0 4; Drakeford 1 0-0 3; Brown 0 2-2 2; Shands 1 0-0 2. Three Point — 8 (Jackson 5, Drakeford, Kruse, Gatling). STONEWALL JACKSON (56) — White 7 3-4 23; Jordan 6 0-0 12; Caracciolo 4 1-2 10; Terry 1 2-3 4; Couts 1 2-2 4; Judson 1 0-0 3. Three Point — 8 (White 6, Judson, Caracciolo).
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