In a classic battle that went into the first overtime period at Falls Church HS in 3 ½ years, the Lady Jags dropped their third straight game to abruptly end the 2016-17 season, this one at the hands of the Lady Colonials of Thomas Jefferson HS in the first round of the Conference 13 playoffs.

The first quarter set the table for this exciting, back-and-forth contest. Sierra Kennard (1^st Team All Conference + All Defensive Team)) opened the scoring with a “3” followed by a two-pointer and two free throws by Nyeisha Thompson. Leah Shaw (2^nd Team All Conference + All Defensive team) ended the Jag scoring with a “3” of her own and the buzzer closed the quarter with the score knotted at 10-10.  Rasha Benhamida (Honorable Mention All Conference) lit up the scoreboard early and often in the second quarter with driving speed to the right, completing three driven-in buckets and a free throw. In addition, four more points divided between Kennard and Shaw to send the Jags to the locker room at intermission up 21-19.

The Lady Jags extended their lead throughout the third quarter with the same four scorers sinking seven baskets and a free throw to carry a 38-32 lead into the final frame of regular game time. TJ continued to nip at the Jaguars’s paws, scoring first in the frame and always staying within three points. Falls Church could muster only four baskets for the quarter; a final-second free throw by a Lady Colonial tied the game at 47-47 to send the contest into overtime. Sierra Kennard and Mia Pendleton (Honorable Mention All Conference) combined for 8 Jaguar points in the 4-minute period, but TJ kept pace, gained the lead and then brushed back purposeful Jaguar fouls with extraordinary success at the free throw line to win the game by six points.

Sound individual performances shone through tonight, despite the losing effort. Nyeisha Thompson celebrated a birthday this night with her best all-around game of her Varsity career in points and rebounds. Leah Shaw and Sierra Kennard split up five “3s” and in doing so, each finished the season with 33 of them, tied for third in the Conference 13 hierarchy in this category. For Shaw, her final three-pointer moved her one past Amber Ecelbarger (2012-16) as the new leader in the Century Benchmark career category with 87 of them. Kennard marked her sixth career game in the 20-point plateau. She finished the year with the second-highest scoring sophomore season in the past 20 years of Lady Jaguar history (exceeded only by Ecelbarger), and her combined points in her first two years have not been matched by any Lady Jaguar in nearly a quarter of a century.

Final Game Scoring Summary:  Sierra Kennard, 22 points; Leah Shaw 13 points; Rasha Benhamida, 9 points; Nyeisha Thompson, 8 points; Mia Pendleton, 3 points.

Season Summary & Analysis

The 2016-2017 FCHS Girls Basketball team closed out one of its shortest seasons in recent memory with only 21 games played. They won eight of them -- the third highest win total this century. Although unable to match last year’s 14-win team, this season’s squad continued some of the same positive trends.

Offensively, they scored 43 points a game; not as potent as last year’s squad but still unmatched by any other Lady Jags team in the past 10 years. The point production is more impressive considering that only 5 points per game was produced from the post position (a drop-off of 50% from last year). The guards and small forwards were key contributors this year, particularly the Lady Jags’ Three Machine which churned out 89 of them to lead Conference 13 by a huge margin for the second straight year. This season’s squad was also one of the best free-throw shooting teams for the school with over 55% efficiency from the foul line. Noticeably lacking from this year’s team was assisted points as considerably more baskets were scored unassisted. Turnovers and other unforced errors were also very apparently higher. Both of these factors, along with points from the paint, have considerable room for improvement, especially considering that 97% of the team’s points this year were produced by underclassmen.

This year’s Lady Jags were probably a little more porous than expected on defense. Not only did they yield 45 points per game, they allowed opponents to cross the 50-point threshold in nearly 40% of those games including four games in which opponents scored 59-69 points. This is more charitable than expected considering three offensively-weaker opponents than last year in Conference 13 as well as non-conference opponents not considered to be offensive juggernauts. Regardless, it must  be noted that two individual players (Leah Shaw and Sierra Kennard) were voted onto the All-Conference Defensive team while a third (Mia Pendleton) clearly should have been and another (Nyeisha Thompson) showed considerable improvement in her coverage and rebounding skills through the course of the season.

How should Coach Pritchett’s team fare next year? Unknown factors make this a somewhat cloudy forecast. As the team transitions to a conference realignment, the schedule is more unsettled than it had been the previous two years. Two Conference 13 opponents who finished ahead of the Jags lose 3-4 starters between this and next season which makes them more vulnerable overall; however, three other conference opponents who beat the Jaguars at least once this season will only get better next year as they retain the majority of their respective starting lineups. This year’s FCHS team should also be stronger next year as this year's primarily underclassmen squad improves with skill, confidence, and experience, including the only freshman on this year's roster, Amari Faust, who played enough and well enough to earn a spot on the All-Rookie Team for Conference 13. 

Come out to the games next year and see how all this plays out.