Battlefield boys get ‘education’ at Danville

By JASON WOLF Media General News Service
Published: February 26, 2008

Battlefield coach Al Ford and his Bobcats sat in the stands during George Washington victory against defending Class AA state champion William Fleming on Friday, the Eagles’ third win this season against the Colonels.

“That was quite an education,” Ford said. “That game gave us an idea of how good Nick Barbour was. We were right in his face. He had a little spurt there in the third quarter that helped them stay ahead, so that hurt us.”

Undefeated George Washington saw its 20-point lead slashed in half in the final minutes of the game, but hung on to defeat Battlefield 66-53 in a Northwest Region quarterfinal game on Tuesday night in Danville. The Eagles advance to visit Potomac, a 62-47 winner against North Stafford in the other quarterfinal, at 7 p.m. on Thursday for a berth in the region final and state tournament.

With two of it’s starters in foul trouble and on the bench, GW (25-0) played a little ball-control, slowing down the game and kicking the ball out off of penetration to Barbour, who drained back-to-back 3-pointers in the third to open a 42-32 lead.

“They were big,” GW point guard Travis Tarpley said. “He was looking for a shot, and he finally got a chance. We knew sooner or later he was going to get open.”

“The game was in the wings right there, and those 3s gave us some distance,” GW coach Bobby Martin said. “It came off the penetration… and he got two wide open 3s. You give Nick a look, he’s going to knock them down.”

Barbour, the team’s leading scorer this season, was largely contained and managed 12 points against the Bobcats. Terrance Townes led GW with a game-high 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Stephen Coles scored 13 points and dominated the boards with 18 rebounds.

The Eagles’ lead grew to as large as 20 points with 3½ minutes left in the game before a 10-0 Bat-tlefield run in a little more than a minute slashed the visitors’ deficit to 59-49. Battlefield (10-16) had seen big leads melt away twice already this season, its coach said.

“We were 24 points down at one point and almost won, and we were 16 points ahead one time and lost the game in overtime, so we knew that anything was possible,” Ford said. “At that point our backs were against the wall, so we were confident that we could put pressure on them to see what could happen.”

The Bobcats, however, were unable to get any closer.

The game was extremely competitive early, as the Eagles struggled to deal with Battlefield’s half-court zone. The teams traded the lead seven times in the first quarter, and GW led 29-26 at intermis-sion. Tarpley, who finished with eight points and seven assists, drilled his first of two long-range 3-pointers to open the second quarter and hand GW the lead for good.

James Robinson led Battlefield with 13 points.

GW closed the third quarter on an 11-0 run as its lead grew to 15 points, and opened the fourth on a 6-2 run to seemingly put the game away before the Bobcats responded with 10 straight points of their own.

“First and second quarter we started forcing stuff and not playing our game,” Townes said. “In the third quarter Coach Martin said to slow down, move the ball around and get open shots.
“We just kept on playing and getting open shots, doing what Coach told us to do.”