Sitting in first place, BHS boys face biggest test yet

Battlefield is in a new position, at least as far as its boys basketball team is concerned. The program entered this week sitting alone on top of the Cedar Run District with a 4-1 district record (8-9 overall).

However, several game postponements and cancellations though have forced head coach Al Ford to scrap some of his player development goals in favor of focusing on the fundamentals.

Ford contends that non-district games allows him to give more time on the court to his bench players. Take for instance the cases of Kevin Bonsu and Roman Hall. Bonsu, a junior, is either near or at the top of the team in points per minute played while Hall, as a freshmen, is being groomed to be a future team leader.

Under normal circumstances, they likely would have played extensively against Potomac and Westfield in December compared to Cedar Run District opponents, allowing them to earn game-time experience without Battlefield being in must-win situations.

Those games were snowed out. The last non-district game came almost a full month ago against Friendship Collegiate Academy. Battlefield entered this week, the last of the regular season, with consecutive make up dates against district opponents Loudoun Valley (Tuesday), Stonewall Jackson (Wednesday) and Heritage (Thursday). All of those games are high-stakes as a single loss could jeopardize Battlefield's regular season title and automatic berth as a No. 1 seed to the Northwest Regional tournament.

That means Ford's starters Jamie Robinson, Bo Revell, Blaine Mason, Evan Peyton and Aaron Harrington can expect even more playing time. Though Ford's not shy about turning to his bench - he claimed he often goes at least 10 players deep into his 13-man roster - opposing teams can be expected to put their best guys on the court for as long as possible too.

Naturally, Ford has to match. Unfortunately for his future stars, their playing time will be limited.

Missing multiple non-district games "is huge" in terms of their development, said Ford. "So, individually, we really thought those two would help us down the stretch. And now you can't count on that at all."

However, Ford insists he will still be turning to his bench in full, Hall and Bonsu included, as they'll have to do what they did at the beginning of the season before the three football players arrived on the team: on-the-job training.

"I'll play 10 guys. I think that we're actually able to possibly use that as an advantage," he said.

Ford said he hopes his depth chart "minimizes the negative impact of not being in peak condition" and that, "each person has a defined roll at this point."

Payton's shooting percentage is the highest on the team. Harrington tallied the most steals. Senior Stephen Lynch has become one of the primary vocal leaders in practice, according to Ford, while Ryan Dandrea has had "explosive moments" during the season, as he's been known to be on the receiving end of successful alley-oop conversions.

"At these kind of points after breaks," Ford said, "Xs and Os take a secondary role to the fundamental things."

As of Monday, the VHSL Web site did not list the start date for the Cedar Run District tournament. However, the neighboring Cardinal District was set to start its tournament in the middle of the week.

"I will be really, really disappointed if we have to scrap games and go into the district tournament," he said.

Nevermind the fact that Battlefield controls its own destiny right now and the short-term gains of having snow-outs gives them easier access to regions.

"We don't want there to be any asterisks next to this season, that we feel we have so much left to accomplish," he said. "We could have a great season that goes down in the history books."

Ford added, "We'd like to play all the games, beat all comers, finish the district (at) No 1, and go down as the district champions without an asterisk mark."