Glass girls stun Patrick Henry, boys fall flat

Coming off an emotionally charged victory over cross-town rival Heritage on Saturday, E.C. Glass’ girls basketball team had a great carry-over effect in Tuesday night’s stunning upset of Western Valley District power Patrick Henry.

The Hilltoppers’ boys team, on the other hand, followed its big win over the Pioneers with a flop against the Patriots in the nightcap.

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“I’m extremely disappointed,” E.C. Glass boys coach Roy Roberson said after the 64-51 loss to visiting PH. “The one thing that’s been constant all year is I’ve been extremely pleased with the effort that we’ve given. We were like zombies in the first half. I guess I’ve got to shoulder that. That’s my responsibility. They weren’t prepared to play.”

The Hilltoppers (2-16, 0-7 Western Valley) trailed by as many as 27 points in the third quarter before recording more than half of their points in the fourth, outscoring their guests, 26-16.

“You don’t have to get kids ready to play when it’s Glass and Heritage,” Roberson said. “I don’t know whether they thought because we beat Heritage, we were a different team.

“Bottom line is we still have got to go out there and compete and we didn’t do that early,” he added. “We found a combination that was willing to do that late (but) we dug too big of a hole.”

Glass got a strong offensive performance from JV call-up Alvin Banks, the younger brother of former scoring leader Tony Banks, who led all scorers with 23 points.

“Alvin’s the guy on our team who can kind of get his own shot,” Roberson said. “We don’t have to run a lot of set plays. He can create for himself.”

But a difference between Tuesday’s loss and Saturday’s triumph was the production from point guard John Adams, who led all scorers with 17 points against the Pioneers but managed just one 3-pointer in limited time against the Patriots.

“John, over the last three or four games has been playing extremely well,” Roberson said. “He played fabulous Saturday night against Heritage. For whatever reason, he just wasn’t here tonight, and we needed him to kind of get us going.”

Terrell Wilson paced PH (7-12, 4-3) with 15 points despite shooting just 9 of 18 from the foul line. Glass fouled him repeatedly in the second half to try to forge a comeback.

B.J. Hamlette added 12 points on four 3-pointers and Yates Sayers, a 6-foot-5 center, totaled 13.

In the girls game, Glass (7-10, 1-6) notched its first district victory, 67-65, on a game-winning shot by Mary Grace Lemon (14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists).

The Patriots fell to 14-5, 6-3 in Western Valley play, with their only previous district defeats against 19-1 Franklin County, by eight points on Friday.

All five Glass starters scored in double figures, led by Jasmine Long’s 16. Only one reserve came off the bench and that was Deshanna Bowling, who totaled four minutes of playing time.

“They’re in shape,” Glass coach Van Porter said. “We’ve been working hard in practice and running them hard after practice. We have one of the longest hallways (of any high school) on the East Coast and I’ll run them up there until they drop.”

Dessi Dupuy (14 points, seven steals, seven assists) missed an eight-foot shot and Lemon pulled down the rebound and hit the putback as the final buzzer sounded.

“We were up by 12 in the third quarter and they made a fierce comeback,” Porter said. “The last time we played them (in Roanoke), we lost by 23 and we were intimidated. It was our first district game and they were scared to death. That’s more of a veteran squad than we are (but) we’re maturing fast.

“I’ve got great athletes,” he added. “We played really good basketball.”

Jasmine Randolph added 13 points and point guard Aliya Auston contributed 10 points and five assists.