Brentsville in new playoff territory

By JEFF CHRISTIAN
Published: February 27, 2008

It has already been the best season ever at Brentsville District High School for its girls’ team.

Last year, his first as Tigers head coach, Eugene Baltimore led his team to a 20-6 mark.

Tonight, as the Tigers take to the court in the semifinals of the Group AA regional tournament against Freedom-South Riding (20-6), Brentsville has a mark of 20-4, the best record in school his-tory.

“Our girls have worked hard to get to where they are,” said Baltimore. “A lot of people didn’t ex-pect us to be where we are and it’s all because of the girls and how hard they have worked as a team.”

With a win tonight, Brentsville will also make it to its first-ever state tournament berth.

Even as at the Group A level, the Tigers, who earned a bye for the region quarterfinals this year, have yet to make it to the state tournament.

“We have never won a regular season title, or a district title,” said Baltimore. “We have had to win other playoff games to make it to the district, where we have never made it to the semifinals.”

Tonight is new territory for the Tigers, however, Baltimore feels his team is ready.

“This one is special,” said Baltimore. “But we know our work is cut out for us.

“South Riding is a very talented team. They are very well coached and disciplined. They are big, bigger than us and so defense will be a huge factor in the outcome of the game.

“We will have to rebound if we are to have a chance to win and limit them to just one shot.”

Freedom-South Riding advanced to tonight’s game by defeating Western Albemarle. It was Free-dom’s first Region II victory in school history, which has been for only three years.

The Eagles are led by Meixandra Porter, Kelsey Buchanan and Dionna Scott. All three were in double figures against Western, netting 13, 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Buchanan was named First Team All-Dulles District, along with Porter. Scott was named to the second team.

Brentsville doesn’t go very deep on its bench. Baltimore normally goes just eight deep for the entire game.

“We will have to play as a team (tonight),” said Baltimore. “Keyla (Baltimore), Allee (Jacobson) and Kimmy (Hopkins) are the three that normally get all of the attention. But Ali Ruotolo is the unsung hero of this team.

“She does a lot of the little things, a lot of the dirty work. She doesn’t worry about scoring, al-though she can score. However, she is willing to do the little things. She is a team leader, one of my captains, who knows what her role is and has no problem doing it.”

With all of the success enjoyed by Brentsville this year, Baltimore knows his team has to come ready to play.

“We have a very tough task ahead of us,” said Baltimore. “We are going to have to play for four quarters and rebound the basketball.”