Incredible!  The word is abused, misused, and overused. But not this time; not here, not tonight. Falls Church beat Mount Vernon in a varsity girls basketball game at Mount Vernon HS. Incredible!  Going into tonight's game, the Lady Jags should have been favored to win, and they did.  No upset here.  Doesn't matter -- Incredible!

It's all about the history. Falls Church probably has never beaten Mount Vernon before (if they ever did, it would have been sometime in the 1980s, but I doubt it). The Lady Jags had lost to the Lady Majors at least 50 straight times, maybe 75, and maybe more. For decades, the Majors have preyed upon the Jaguars twice a year (sometimes thrice), each and every year. It usually was a mauling: 89-30, 82-31, 90-26, 82-26, 64-8, 87-17, 71-25, 90-26, 80-26, 93-16. Those were the actual scores of a consecutive 10-game string of Mt. Vernon-Falls Church contests played between 2008-2013. One of the first games in that series infamously made Falls Church HS a national story as a victim in a USA Today piece titled, "Prep Blowouts: when playing to win becomes rubbing it in." Of course, that story could have been re-run for the rest of the games in that string of beat downs. But not tonight. Falls Church beat Mt. Vernon. Incredible!

Exactly five years ago to the week, Coach Pritchett happened to be an assistant at the last blowout in the above series of games. She almost turned around Lady Jags fortunes two years later, at the close of her second season as head coach, when her depleted team (only six players were dressed) held a lead all the way into the final minutes of a playoff game at Mt. Vernon before running out of gas in the end. But tonight, her team came out strong and battled to a six-point half-time lead. Whatever speech she gave at intermission worked like a charm. Her players remained inspired and intense and perhaps played their best half of the entire season. The third quarter alone was a 19-6 blowout which decided the outcome, but Falls Church did not run out of steam this time -- they played the final eight minutes much like the previous frame to preserve a 19-point victory.    Against Mt. Vernon.   At Mount Vernon HS.   Incredible!

Scoring Summary: Rasha Benhamida, 23 points; Sierra Kennard, 15 points; Amari Faust, 8 points; Gabriele Clay, 7 points; Leah Shaw, 4 points; Nyeisha Thompson, 3 points; Torrie Maddox, 2 points.