“It’s going this way” was a common chant from the small but mighty McLean School Mustangs student section on Tuesday night versus the JDS Lions. Despite their energy, not much else went the Mustangs’ way, as the Lions prevailed in the quarterfinal game 56-39, advancing to the PVAC semifinals where they will face the Berman Cougars.
After defeating the Mustangs twice during the regular season in closer, more physical games, the Lions dominated on both offense and defense in front of a large crowd. Head Coach Ryan Eskow said that there is a different strategy when facing a team for the third time.
“[After] playing a team [for] three games, you generally know what the other team does. We just knew we had to be composed,” Eskow said.
The Lions exemplified this level of composure throughout the game. In the first quarter, they were up early thanks to five first quarter points from junior Dylan Shank and two fast break layups off of steals from senior Jesse Fisher.
Leading in the second quarter, senior and captain Micah Goldrich hit a clean layup to extend the Lions’ lead to 19-6. Goldrich said that it is imperative to be aggressive at the beginning of any basketball game.
“The team that throws the first punch is going to win, and going up big is always the way to start,” Goldrich said. “[It] just gets energy up, gets confidence going, and that’s all we really needed.”
Once JDS took the lead, they never lost it. Senior and captain Cyrus Blumenthal helped widen the scoring gap in the third quarter with two three-pointers, while seniors Matty Stillman (7 rebounds), Leo Steindecker (4 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Caden Mont (8 rebounds) contributed heavily to the JDS presence in the paint.
High energy from both the JDS bench and the crowd also played a large role in the game. The Mustangs had a strong student section despite the game being away, featured especially on foul shots even in the later parts of the game when there was no realistic chance that they could come back.
“[The atmosphere] just makes everything more exciting,” Goldrich said. “We could have let it break us down, we could have gotten nervous…but that’s what we live for. We’ve got to let the fans [and] the energy hype us up.”
The Lions did exactly that, scoring another 18 points in the third quarter courtesy of two more 3-pointers from Blumenthal as well as one each from Fisher and Shank. The Lions’ big lead forced the Mustangs to leave their comfort zone in the paint and take more three-pointers, leading to more missed shots.
In the fourth quarter, with the game mainly out of reach for the Mustangs as the Lions led 44-24, Eskow replaced some of his starters with other players in order to give them more experience in meaningful games.
As the Lions held on for the 56-39 victory, they set their sights on the semifinals on Feb. 19 against Berman. Fisher emphasized that in situations like these, it’s important to look at the bigger picture and focus on the identity of the team.
“We’re a really good team,” Fisher said. “We have a lot of chemistry, we have a lot of good basketball players and we beat every team in our league. We know we can win this, it’s just on us to execute.”
Goldrich and the other seniors on the team are entering their final few games of high school basketball. Like Fisher, Goldrich also looked at the team’s broader context. He said that he gained a lot of experience after being on the team for three years, and recalled how he felt at the beginning.
“There’s no words I have for how grateful I have been for this team,” he said. “I’ve been on it since sophomore year, and I remember my sophomore year, the seniors said, ‘You’re not gonna believe how quickly this goes.’ And…that resonates with me a lot right now, and I just feel grateful.”
