The Wootton Patriots varsity boys basketball team defeated the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons 59-47 at home on Friday night with an explosive second half performance. The Patriots improved to 7-3 with their first regional win of the season.
With an intense performance, the Rockville-based Patriots stunned the Montgomery 4A/3A Central Division-leading Barons in front of a packed student section.
“All these guys love each other. They love competition,” said Patriots head coach Erick Graves. “We’re in an extremely hard region. These guys play hard.”
The Barons proved to be a tough opponent from the start, maintaining a lead throughout the first quarter by piercing the Patriots defense under the basket. At the beginning of the second frame, a scoreboard error gave both sides time to reflect on their gameplans as the board’s operators addressed the glitch.
“We were trying to switch stuff up,” Graves said. “In the first half we weren’t consistent [in] getting everybody on the same page.”
Late in the third quarter, both offenses battled in a three-pointer frenzy capped by a bank shot from half court by Wotton junior guard Brenden Famulare, which tied the game at 40 heading into the final frame.
The Patriots took this momentum into the fourth, hitting a total of four three pointers and silencing the Barons’ offense. The Wootton students in attendance erupted in cheers as their team put together a 20-3 run over the course of six minutes.
During that run, guard Taj Smith sank multiple shots from beyond the arc. He finished as the game’s leading scorer with 21 points and ranks third among all players in the region for points per game with an average of 13.1. Fellow guard Jaiden Aze netted 11 points as well.
“Taj Smith did great, Jaiden Aze [was] amazing with what we’re doing,” Graves said. “For us, our primaries are just so strong, so tough.”
Wootton senior forward Yassine Idrissa played in his first game of the season against the Barons. Coming off an injury suffered in a scrimmage, Idrissa made an immediate impact with an alley-oop in the first half.
For the Barons, Lucas Allen finished with 14 points, nine of which came from three-pointers. After losing only their second game of the season, B-CC will travel to Potomac to battle regional rival, Churchill, on Monday before returning home to face Whitman next Friday.
The Patriots will travel to Bethesda to face Whitman on Monday, seeking to continue building momentum against another regional opponent. For Graves, the path is clear. “We have a 24-hour rule,” he said. “We’re gonna enjoy this right now, love each other in the locker room. And then as we come out, we’ll be back in the gym.”