Liberty District Basketball: Coach of Year Jones Sees His Girls Advance; Player of the Year Brown, Bulldogs Hopes Dashed with 1.4 Seconds Left

Click on the photo to see an entire gallery by Craig Sterbutzel


Ashburn (Feb. 19, 2010) - Stone Bridge High School girls coach Chris Jones and junior Nik Brown picked up some nice honors this week with Jones being named the Liberty District Coach of the Year and Brown being honored as the boys Player of the Year. They came away from Thursday's district quarterfinal doubleheader at Stone Bridge with mixed emotions.

Jones saw his girls clinch a Northern Region bid after they overcame a slow start to defeat Fairfax, 53-45, but Brown and the Bulldogs saw their season come to a shocking end as McLean erased a 9-point fourth quarter deficit and then send the game into overtime when Gordon Rogo made three clutch free throws with 1.4 seconds left. The Highlanders then held SB without a field goal in the extra period to escape with the 70-67 upset.

For Stone Bridge, the hottest district team prior to the snowstorms including a win over district champ Langley, the season ends at 13-6 and a fifth straight year without a AAA regional appearance.

Girls Game: Stone Bridge 53, Fairfax 45
Bulldog freshman Murielle Tiernan had eight rebounds to go with her team-high 12 points in the win.

Sakai Williams, Maggie Schierling (defensively), and Kayleigh Guzek had strong all around games.

After trailing by seven early, SB picked up the tempo of the game and scored 25 second quarter points by forcing a number of turnovers.

Both teams tightened the defense in the third quarter. In the final quarter, after Fairfax closed the margin to four, Williams hit a big 3-pointer to change the momentum back to Stone Bridge's favor.

The Bulldogs then spread the court for the final two minutes and made 9 of 12 free throws late in the game to seal the win.

Girls Basketball - Liberty Quarterfinal
Stone Bridge 4 25 6 18 - 53
Fairfax 9 14 8 14 - 45
Halftime: Stone Bridge 29, Fairfax 23


Stone Bridge:
M. Tiernan 12, S. Williams 11, Scierling 7, Whitaker 6, Guzek 6, Sleece , C. Prince 4, Gouveia 2 Three pointers: Williams 2, Sleece 1 Foul line:  14 of 22


Fairfax:
Burford 19, McNaughton 7, Patterson 7, B. Gladney 7, Freeman 2, A, Gladney 2, Sharpe 1 Three pointers:  Burford 1 Foul Line:  16 of 23

Boys game: McLean 70, Stone Bridge 67 (OT)
It was a fairly close game throughout with SB up 27-25 at halftime. McLean was very effective with their "triangle" stall game.

In the mid-fourth quarter, SB pushed the lead to nine points and forced McLean to get out of their zone.

The Bulldogs, however, did not execute very well down the stretch and let McLean tie the game up with 1.4 seconds left on three foul shots by Gordon Rogo after he was fouled behind the 3-point arc. Even though Rogo was just 2 of 7 from the line during the rest of the game, he calmly made all three, including the final shot to tie the game after SB had called time out to ice him.

Rogo's clutch shooting left it tied 61-61 heading into OT.

In overtime, all of SB points came from the foul line.

Boys Basketball - Liberty Quartefinal
Stone Bridge
Player 2pt FG 3pt FG FTM-A REB PTS
Nik Brown 8 0 10-10 26
James Wells 5 1 3-7 16
Richie Berry 5 1 2-4 15
Kyle Gouveia 2 0 0-0 4
Sam Tripp 1 0 2-2 4
Ryan Lowdermilk 0 0 2-2 2
Totals 21 2 19-25 67


McLean
Player 2pt FG 3pt FG FTM-A REB PTS
Phil Bouchard 6 0 6-8 18
Jake Pierce 0 5 0-0 15
Sean Fitzgerald 3 0 5-8 11
Gordon Rogo 3 0 5-10 11
Sango Amolo 3 0 2-2 8
Thomas Van Wazer 2 0 1-1 5
Romeo KC 0 0 2-2 2
Evan Straka 0 0 0-0 0
Totals 17 5 21-31 70

2009-2010 Liberty District Men’s Basketball Honors
Player of the Year: Nik Brown, Stone Bridge High School

1st TEAM
Austin Kriz - Langley High School
Daniel McClain - Marshall High School
Richard Berry - Stone Bridge High School
Joseph Daye - South Lakes High School
Colin Jones - Langley High School

2nd TEAM
Will Simonto - Marshall High School
Jordan Kuchel - Fairfax High School
Daniel Barnes - Thomas Jefferson High School
Stanley Watts - Marshall High School
Joey Kiffe - Langley High School

HONORABLE MENTION
Phil Bouchard - McLean High School
Ramin Shaheedian - South Lakes High School
TJ Ehrsam Madison - High School
Gordon Rogo McLean - High School
Austin Vasiliadis - Langley High School


ALL DEFENSIVE-TEAM
Defensive Player of the Year: Will Simonton, Marshall High School
Joey Kiffe - Langley High School
Nik Brown - Stone Bridge High School
Jazz Holley - Fairfax High School
Jordan Kuchel - Fairfax High School
Darius Smith - South Lakes High School
Gordon Rogo - McLean High School
Daniel Barnes - Thomas Jefferson High School
TJ Ehrsam - Madison High School

Coach of the Year: Travis Hess, Langley High School

2009-2010 Liberty Women’s Basketball All-District Teams


Player of the Year: Lauren Burford, Fairfax High School

1st TEAM
Erin Kavanagh - James Madison High School
Kristen Kody - Langley High School
Zoe Beard-Fails - South Lakes High School
Shannon Ericksson - Thomas Jefferson HS Science & Tech
Andie Romness - McLean High School

2nd TEAM
Theresa Hackett - George C. Marshall High School
Cori Prince - Stone Bridge High School
Marlena Tremba - South Lakes High School
Liz McNaughton - Fairfax High School
Melissa Wilson - McLean High School
Ashlei Sutton - South Lakes High School
Anna Jay - James Madison High School

3rd TEAM
Carlie Zirkle - George C. Marshall High School
Sarah Schrock - James Madison High School
Caitlin Baker - McLean High School
Sakai Williams - Stone Bridge High School
Alexis Doherty - Langley High School

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Khristin Kyllo - James Madison High School
Natalie Kendall - South Lakes High School
Maggie Schierling - Stone Bridge High School
Kristen Kody - Langley High School
Kristina Bettner - McLean High School
Amanda Gladney - Fairfax High School
Theresa Hackett - George C. Marshall
Shannon Ericksson - Thomas Jefferson H.S. Science & Tech
Coach of the Year: Chris Jones, Stone Bridge High School

All-Star Team
*Lauren Burford - Fairfax
*Erin Kavanagh - Madison
*Kristen Kody - Langley
*Theresa Hackett - Marshall
*Melissa Wilson - McLean
Carlie Zirkle - Marshall
Caitlin Baker – McLean
Sakai Williams – Stone Bridge
Alexis Dogherty - Langley

INJURED but may be able to play…Jasmine Jones – South Lakes
Deep ALTERNATES : Natalie Kendall (SL), Kristin Kyllo (Mad.), Lauren Hurlburt (Mar.), Caleigh Patterson (FFX), Sarah Stancik (SB), Mary Riley Pembroke (LAN)