They may be the defending Virginia AAA state champions and they may claim to not be fazed by any opposition, but even the T.C. Williams boy’s basketball team isn’t immune to being a little awestruck every once in a while.
That’s the predicament the Titans found themselves in last Saturday night with close to 2,000 fans packed into Comcast Pavilion on the campus of University of Maryland as they went head-to-head with Montrose Christian, the No. 10 in the nation according to ESPN and the No. 1 team in the area according to the Washington Post.
T.C. Williams (10-2 overall, 5-0 Patriot District) fell behind by double digits in a matter of minutes and Montrose Christian never looked back, cruising to a 70-53 win. It was just the Titans second loss of the season, but it may have taught them a valuable lesson when the topic of a second consecutive state title inevitably comes up next month.
“We were kind of wide eyed at the beginning,” said coach Julian King. “We’ve been starting slow all year long, but once you meet a team that’s just as good as you at every position, and maybe even better, you’re playing catch-up the entire game, and it’s hard to do that the entire game.”
<b>THE OUTCOME HAD</b> no real bearing on the Titans’ pursuit of another district, regional, or state championship, but it clearly meant a lot to the team’s veterans, who wanted revenge after last season’s 64-58 double overtime loss to Montrose at T.C. Williams.
“This was lovely, this was like a state championship,” said junior Ryan Yates, who had 13 points in the game. “For the younger guys, who didn’t go through last year, this is really going to help us.”
But while the Titans lost nine seniors from their title-winning team a year ago, Montrose Christian coach Stu Vetter admitted after the game this season’s Mustang squad might be his best ever with “nine or 10 players that will play some form of Division-I college basketball.” That’s saying something for a school that has produced NBA products like Kevin Durant and Linas Kleiza in the past five years.
<b>ONE OF THE BIGGEST</b> issues — literally — that T.C. Williams couldn’t overcome was the Mustang’s ridiculous amount of height. Montrose Christian had seven players 6-foot-3 or taller, including 7-foot-1 sophomore T. Jordan Omogbehin, who didn’t even play.
“Last year we could match up better with them,” said Yates, who had to guard 6-foot-10 Mouphtaou Yarou — a game high 21 points — for much of the game. “So at times, my natural position may have been on the wing, but I was guarding a center who is going to Villanova. It was tough for me.”
But after falling behind by 17 points in the first quarter, T.C. Williams never backed down, playing Montrose even the rest of the way. The Titans even had a shot to cut the lead to single digits at several points during the second and third quarters, but as is typical when fighting a large deficit, the comeback takes up so much energy that coming up short is inevitable.
“We just started too late,” said senior Edward Jenkins, who bounced back from a shaky start to score a team-high 15 points. “Any time you start late against a good team, you’re going to lose and it took a loss for us to realize it.”
His words rung true Tuesday night, as T.C. Williams rebounded with an 83-54 thumping of South County.