Basketball: Super Sweet Quarterfinal Sweep! Freedom Girls and Potomac Falls Boys Advance to VHSL Division 4 State Semifinals

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

Fairfax (Mar. 5, 2010) - Potomac Falls High School boys basketball coach Jeff Hawes simply said after his team defeated Tabb, 58-51, Friday for the Panthers first state playoff victory in school history: "Why not us."

Potomac Falls (20-2), with junior Lukas Mihailovich scoring a game-high 24 points, is now just two games away from a state title after the VHSL Division 4 quarterfinal win at Robinson High School, the same as the Freedom High School girls who destroyed Courtland, 75-41, to advance.

Freedom coach Jason Eldredge couldn't be blamed for saying "Anybody but us" as senior Kelsey Buchanan broke the 1,500-point career mark with a game-high 19 rebounds and 27 points, eight of those point came as the Eagles (19-5) ran away to a 21-0 lead to start the contest.

Both teams will play in the semifinals Tuesday at VCU's Siegel Center in Richmond with the Eagles facing the Bassett vs. Turner Ashby winner at 7 p.m. and the Panthers taking on the Salem vs. Spotswood winner at 9 p.m.

Freedom is looking for a second straight state title after winning the Division 3 crown last year. The team is rolling with junior Dionna Scott scoring 15, seniors Jessica Escorza and Jasmine Merritt combining for 22 and four Eagles off the bench contributing a total of 12. The average margin of victory for Freedom in the regional finals and now state quarterfinals is a whopping 31.5 points.

Courtland, playing without injured top player Anika Trent, needed nearly five minutes to score a point in the contest and ended the first quarter with more turnovers than shot attempts.

While Freedom cruised, Potomac Falls was locked into a tight battle with a Tabb team that tossed in subs like it was a hockey match. While the Tabb second unit staked the Tigers to a lead in the first half after PF had led, 12-11, after one, the Panthers were able to take a one-point lead into the locker room at the half, 29-28, after momentum swung on a technical foul called against Tabb with the game tied 23-23.

Greg Graves was fouled on the play and made one free throw. Mihailovich, who was 9 of 10 from the line, sank the two technical shots to put PF up 26-23 and the Panthers never trailed again.

Mihailovich came out to start the second half and buried a big 3-pointer. Meanwhile, Tabb's top scorer, Emmanuel Jones was in foul trouble all night and finished with four points -- all in the first minutes of the game. Quilin McCormick finished with a team-high 13 for the Tigers and Patrick Corbett scored 10.

Graves scored eight of his nine points in the second half and Mihailovich had eight of his 24 in the final quarter including 4 of 4 from the line as he iced the game.

Click here for the Freedom girls box.

Potomac Falls 58, Tabb 51
Tabb                11 17  7 16 - 51
Potomac Falls  12 17 15 14 - 58

Tabb: Jones 1 2-4 4, McCormick 6 0-1 13, Platt 0 0-0 0, Ham 3 1-1 7, James 1 1-2 3, Barnes 1 2-2 4, Blessing 1 1-1 3, Corbett 4 0-0 10, Kegleman 2 0-0 5,  Cole 1 0-0 2. 20 7-11 51.
PF: Curran 2 2-2 6, Mihailovich 7 9-10 24, Chesson 3 2-4 8, Wagenhoffer 3 0-0 6, Graves 4 1-4 9, Simoneau 2 0-0 5. Totals 21 14-20 58.
3-Pointers: Tabb 4 (Corbett 2, McCormick 1, Kegleman 1), PF 2 (Simoneau, Mihailovich)