Streaky Potomac avenges loss to Douglass

“I was remembering last game,” Johnson said afterwards. “They don't quit. Coach [Tyrone] Massenburg, he's going to get every ounce out of those guys. So I was telling them, 'Don't let up, don't look at the scoreboard. Play until the last shot.'”

Indeed, Tuesday would follow a much different script. Dion Wiley, Randall Broddie and Romone Saunders rattled off six straight points after absorbing Johnson's instruction, dousing a quick burst by the Eagles to keep the lead intact. Potomac eventually won, 83-67, in Oxon Hill.

“We didn't let up,” said Wiley, who finished with 16 points. “The first night we played them we had a big lead, but we just stuck the floor with them tonight.”

Potomac boasts one of the top backcourts in the region with Wiley, a highly-sought recruit getting looks from the University of Maryland, Georgetown and North Carolina State among others, and Broddie, a precocious freshman averaging 17.5 points per game. So, as has become the trend for teams matching up with the Wolverines, Douglass opted for a garden variety of zone defenses to try and slow them down. Not much worked.

“They're a very talented team,” Massenburg said. “A team like that, you got to have your 'A' game on.”

On the strength of some high percentage shooting from 3-point land, Potomac jumped out to a 15-5 lead early in the first quarter and stretched it to 35-22 midway through the second. Of all the defenses Douglass threw at the Wolverines, there was really only one thing that seemed to be able to stop them: themselves.

Douglass sprung a full-court press towards the end of the second quarter and the Wolverines panicked. Balls were dribbled out of bounds, thrown into the stands and thrown to defenders, and the Eagles closed the half on a 7-0 run to whittle the lead to six.

“I think those things can be fixed,” Johnson said. “We're 12 and two out of the first 14 games and I just think it's just a matter of getting it, getting it fixed.”

As quickly as Potomac imploded, however, the Wolverines were just as quick to reverse the tide in their direction. Wiley, Broddie and Saunders authored an 11-0 run to close out the third quarter after Douglass had just scrapped and clawed its way back into it and the game was never brought into single digits again.

Potomac has now won nine straight games since its last loss on Dec. 15 to Sidwell Friends. What do they have to do to keep that up?

“Stay humble,” said Broddie, who finished with a game-high 26 points. “Stay hungry, don't take anything for granted.”

tmewhirter@gazette.net

Potomac 83, Douglass 67

Potomac 19 16 24 24 — 83

Douglass 11 18 13 25 — 67

SCORING

Potomac (12-2, 10-1): Randall Broddie 26; Dion Wiley 16; Romone Saunders 15; Chris Winn 14; Anthony Smith 6; Emile Neugent 2; Dayjar Dickson 2; Anthony Ridley 2.

Douglass (8-7, 6-5): Saquan Epps-Walker 22; Tyler Smith 10; Marsalis Hurley 9; Keyonte Frager 7; Jeffrey Calhoun 7; Trevor Johnson 5; Terrell Barber 5; Dalton Smith 2.