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Buzzer-beating block by Big Bo boosts Bobcats by Raiders 50-49
In order for the Battlefield boys basketball team to even have a chance to play in the Cedar Run District tournament championship game for the second year in a row, the Bobcats had to first get by their archrival at Fauquier High School: Stonewall Jackson.Battlefield. Stonewall. Winner earns an automatic berth to regions. The loser goes home.
This was bound to be a classic.
"They're our rival. It's no holds-bar," said Battlefield forward Bo Revell.
When the two teams met up during the regular season on Jan. 9 in Haymarket, it took a last-second buzzer beater by James Robinson for Battlefield to pull off a stands-clearing 54-53 win.
Point guard Jordan Baird guaranteed after the match the next time the two teams met up in Manassas on Feb. 6 that there would be no such game-ending buzzer beater and, bow, was he vindicated. The Raiders cruised 67-46 as part of an eight-game winning stream that made SJ without a doubt the hottest team entering the Cedar Run District.
The Bobcats topped Osbourn Park in the first round of the tournament 69-62 while Stonewall smashed Liberty with the Hammer of Thor 83-54.
"Well, it was a big revenge game, I think, for us. We wanted them bad and it was good to hear when they won because we wanted a taste of revenge," said Battlefield junior Bo Revell.
Stonewall trailed early in the semi-finals, falling behind 27-20 at halftime. Battlefield managed to keep its seven-point lead at the end of third quarters and extended it to 10 points with 5:06 left in the final period.
Then, the pendulum swung.
Brown Dixon III picked off a Battlefield pass and, one Battlefield foul later, his teammate Darren Warren found perennial 3-point threat Jamal Fofana along the left baseline, where he did what he does best in the clutch. Another Stonewall steal immediately followed on the inbounds pass and Warren drew another Battlefield foul, costing the Bobcats another two points.
"As long as we closed out on them, we would be fine. We just had to spread [our] Monster [defensive set up] out and not get sucked in on penetration because that's what they were looking to do: penetrate and dish," said Robinson.
A back and forth ensued before Baird sank a 3-pointer of his own, bringing the game to a much-more-heated 44-41 score.
Battlefield rebuilt the lead to five points by the time the clock had only 34.9 seconds remaining thanks to a Marty Dawson foul shot.
"I just saw they're out of control going for with those traps. And they were just going for control of the ball," said Dawson of how he drew the foul.
Without time for error, Stonewall had to act quickly, but this is where the big boys from Battlefield played like big men on defense.
As Dixon tried to close the gap with a baseline jumper, Battlefield forward Tim Horn reached over his head from behind and swatted the ball out of bounds, forcing SJ to eat up another 10 seconds of clock time before Warren sank a 3-pointer with 20.3 seconds left. Robinson proved to be a thorn in the Stonewall side again late in a games he finished off a series of bounceless-passed with a lay-up that Warren had to answer by storming the length of the court with some hoop and harm of his own. He converted the free throw to cut the score to 50-49, now with 6.5 seconds on the board.
The Raiders needed something big and Battlefield basically handed it to them with a big, burgundy and gold bow as Horn dropped a pass out of bounds under full-court pressure, giving the electrified Stonewall team one more chance to complete the comeback.
"You've got to grab the rebound," Battlefield coach Al Ford commanded his center Dion Romeo during an ensuring timeout.
"Change the shot," he instructed the rest of his team.
Flashback to January: Revell goes for a loose ball out of bounds. But he ends up tying himself up with Nicholas Pavlosky and clotheslines him straight off the ground. A near-fight ensued and the 6-foot-6 quarterback-turned-forward was slapped with a technical foul.
One month and a half months later, the rookie basketball player showed he learned the difference between playing physical on the football field and the basketball court.
"We knew they had some shooters, so we tried to make them play inside with us," said Revell.
Baird scooted the ball out to Warren on the inbounds pass. Facing double coverage near the bottom left baseline, he could have gone for a 3-pointer or a long deuce, but opted to pass it to Michael Alexander for a much higher percentage shot near the hoop. Alexander charged toward the basket and went up for a lay-up.
But the ball came back much sooner than he or nearly anyone else expected.
Revell drifted over his coverage and smacked the ball clear out of his hands under the basket right as time expired.
And that was it. Battlefield won 50-49 and was headed back to the Cedar Run District championship.
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