Seahawks Hold Off Falls Church For 61-53 Win

The last time the South Lakes boys varsity basketball team took their home court, they lost by 27 points in the Liberty Distirct final.

This time, though, coach Andrew Duggan and his players knew they needed to forget that game, focus on the upcoming one, and simply “move on.”

That’s exactly what his team did in their first-round Northern Region tournament game, holding off the Falls Church Jaguars down the stretch for a 61-53 victory Monday night.

“They just wanted to get that out of their systems by getting back out on the floor and playing,” Duggan said. “Like I’ve said all year when things go wrong, our thought process needs to be, ‘Next one. It’s time to move on.’”

Junior forward D.J. Christian led the Seahawks from the start, scoring the team’s first six points and eight of their first 10.

“I just tried to get to the glass, rebound and get the ball every chance I could get,” said Christian, who led all scorers with 30 points. “I had to be active out there.”

Christian scored all of his points in the paint and went to the free throw line 18 times, making 14 of his attempts.

Despite Christian’s efforts, South Lakes was never able to get too comfortable with its lead. After two free throws from Christian with 1.4 seconds left in the half, Falls Church hit a long-distance 3-pointer to get within six points, 32-26, heading into halftime.  

Jaguars senior guard Nizar Alamin led the way with nine first-half points for the visitors and finished with a team-high 22 points.

“He’s capable of doing that every single night and he’s our leader,” said Jaguars coach T.C. Papageorge. “It doesn’t surprise me because that’s what he’s been doing his whole career.”

In the third Romeo Kc’s scored 12 points, and the Jaguars took the lead, 41-40, following five straight points from KC with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter.

After briefly losing their lead in the third, the Seahawks were able to stay composed and recapture the lead for good following a 6-0 run to start the final quarter.

“We knew they could make a run at any time,” said Duggan. “We’ve had a couple games like this where we’ve battled back to take the lead, so while it worried me a little bit, I felt confident our guys would come through.”

Junior guard J.D. Wallace scored 10 points in the second half to finish with 15 points, the only other Seahawk besides Christian to score in double figures.

South Lakes will play at Herndon (22-2)  on Wednesday.