The Lady Jaguars ended the 2016-2017 regular season with a loss on their home court against the Lady Warriors of Wakefield HS. Although they were unable to match last season's team record, this year's team finished only one notch lower in the Conference 13 standings and actually celebrated more victories than all but two Lady Jaguar teams this century (2006-2007, 2015-2016).

The Wakefield game started sluggishly for Falls Church as they extended their scoring slump to five straight quarters (going back to the Lee game) with only one field goal and a few free throws in that eight-minute frame. Then came a complete offensive turnaround in the second quarter. Falls Church stormed onto the court with a blizzard of points -- 23 of them! -- generated from five players. Mia Pendleton was razor sharp from the penalty stripe, swishing seven out of eight free throws in the quarter. Leah Shaw hit a free throw as well, right after landing her 30th three-pointer of the season. Sierra Kennard hit a two-point bucket and two "3s" with her first easily the longest of the season from about five feet beyond the arc (she now has 31 of them). Meg Verhagen and Rasha Benhamida also struck paydirt with two pointers to accumulate enough points for Falls Church to carry a one-point lead into intermission, 28-27.

Amari Faust extended Falls Church's lead with a basket early in the third quarter. Immediately following this, Wakefield's highest scorer went to the bench in foul trouble. Not only did the Lady Jags fail to capitalize on this, they virtually collapsed over the next ten minutes, on the very bad end of a 25-4 Wakefield run that carried into the fourth quarter. The Jags pulled six points closer in the middle of the fourth quarter with free throws by Sierra Kennard and two baskets by Nyeisha Thompson, but the entire second-half festival of fringe and flagrant fouls as well as numerous Jaguar miscues and turnovers continued unabated to the final buzzer to allow Wakefield to pull away with ease and win this one by nearly twenty points.

Sierra Kennard notched her 11th double-digit game and Mia Pendleton matched her free-throw prowess tonight with strong defense, including seven rebounds, as well as two assists on offense. The Three Machine  churned out three more tonight and has now generated 84 three pointers for the season, easily the most in Conference 13 for the second straight year. The Lady Jags left  a harvest of points on the floor tonight, but not nearly enough to overcome all the unforced errors they committed. Notwithstanding that wonderful second-quarter, Falls Church's offensive production in the other seven quarters of the past two games amounted to only five points a quarter. They clearly need to reverse this in order to overcome the tough defense they are about to face in the first round of the Conference 13 playoffs next week as Coach Pritchett attempts to extend the season and lead her team into the regional tournament for the second straight year.

Scoring Summary:  Sierra Kennard, 13 points; Mia Pendleton, 8 points; Rasha Benhamida, 6 points; Nyeisha Thompson, 5 points; Leah Shaw, 4 points; Meg Verhagen, 2 points; Amari Faust, 2 points.