• The Washington-Liberty Generals rallied for a key win in Liberty District girls basketball action the night of Jan. 18.
In a battle for second place, visiting Washington-Liberty (6-6, 5-1) defeated the McLean Highlanders (9-7, 4-3) by a 52-46 score. The Generals trailed 33-23 in the third quarter, then battled back to take the lead for good thanks to a 16-0 run.
Washington-Liberty’s Kelly McIntyre made four straight foul shots in the game’s final 20 seconds to ice the victory.
The Generals were led by center Eve Jungman. She scored a game-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds and a blocked shot.
Her three-point play with 58 seconds left in the third quarter gave W-L the lead for good at 34-33. She then scored nine points, including a second three-point play, in the fourth period.
Washington-Liberty coach Maddy DeCou said the game plan wasn’t necessarily to get the ball inside to Youngman, but the attack evolved as the contest progressed.
“Everyone did a good job and bought into what was working well, and there were a lot of good passes made inside to Eve,” DeCou said. “And on defense we focused well on getting stops after we were behind.”
DeCou credited McIntyre for doing a good defensive job against one of McLean’s top scorers.
Julia Kelly (nine points) hit a big three-pointer in the fourth for Washington-Liberty.
Freshman guard/forward Kathryn Wagener scored 10 points and had two steals for the Generals and Malek Ben scored two and had four rebounds. Frances Shapiro had three points and five boards.
“Kathryn has a calm presence for us out there,” DeCou said.
For McLean, Vilte Kacerauskaite scored 15 points, made two three-pointers and had three rebounds and two steals. Tatum Olson scored 13 and Allyson Hodder had seven points and five rebounds. Also, Alyssa Evans had two points and seven boards and Macy Crawford had four points and four rebounds.
The victory was W-L’s second over McLean this season.
The Langley Saxons (14-1, 5-0) are atop the Liberty District girls standings. Langley routed the Herndon Hornets, 51-21, on Jan. 18. The win was the fifth in a row for Langley, which defeated McLean in its previous game.
Anya Rahman scored 15 points and had four rebounds for Langley against Herndon. Vicky Zawisza scored 10 and made two three-pointers and Peyton Daley scored eight.
Also for Langley, Maddie Shamloo had five points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals; Meave Christie had four points, seven boards and four assists; and Bri Borcherding had four points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• In boys basketball, the Yorktown Patriots (9-7, 3-3) snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating the visiting Marshall Statesmen, 56-42, in Liberty District action Jan. 18. Marshall fell to 12-5, 3-4 with its third straight loss.
Andrew Maria led Yorktown in scoring with 19 points.
Also in Jan. 18 Liberty District boys action, the second place McLean Highlanders (12-5, 5-2) remained in sole possession of second place with a 56-45 road win over the Washington-Liberty Generals (5-11, 1-4).
