By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Manager
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area
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First-year South County coach Chrissy Kelly‘s emotions at any point during her Stallions’ games are obvious.
The difference between Kelly pounding her fist on the bench in frustration and pumping it skyward in exaltation, according to her, is simple: Defensive effort.
And watching her grin, clap and cheer during the fourth quarter of Monday’s re-match with Lee makes Kelly’s assertion that much more believable.
The Stallions heightened the horsepower of their man-to-man defense in the after half time, holding the Lancers to eight second-half points until the 3-minute mark of the fourth, to pull away for a 51-34 road win.
“Our first priority is defense,” said Kelly, a three-time Northwest Region Coach of the Year — and two-time Virginia AAA Coach of the Year — in her eight seasons at Forest Park. “Like I told my kids, we’re not a team that’s going to put a lot of numbers on the board, we’re going to hope we line it up defensively and go from there.”
Added Stallion junior Fatu Conteh: “Coach Kelly, all she cares about is defense, defense, defense. If the other team doesn’t score, they don’t win.
“We know that we can score on anybody else, but the question is if they can score on us.”
The last time these teams met, Lee (10-6, 5-4) answered that question with a resounding, “Yes.”
The Lancers overcame an 11-point deficit in the final five minutes to defeat the Stallions, 44-42, in Lorton on December 16 in the Patriot District opener for both teams.
On Monday, though, South County put any Lee comeback hopes to rest, despite a final-minute, 3-point shot barrage by the Lancers that added 12 late points to trim the end margin.
“All day today, all I could think about was not just winning, but dominating,” said Conteh, assigned to defend Lee guard Priscilla Moseh, who scored a game-high 24 points in South County’s district-opening loss. “On the offense rebounds, defensive rebounds and playing defense — what we know is defense.
“We made a lot of corrections from watching tape a couple days ago, like switching on screens, switching on hand-offs. We were a lot better on defense, [especially] help-side.”
No player personified Conteh’s vision of domination, especially in the game’s latter stages, like Stallion sophomore forward Simone Antwi.
Antwi, a walking double-double, scored 18 of her game-high 21 points in the second half, including 12 in the final quarter.
“It’s a lot of pressure [to score], but it’s good pressure,” said Antwi, who has scored double-digit point totals in all but one game this year. “I feed off it … At half time, my coach talked to me and said that we need presence from our post players, so I needed to be that presence.”
With more wins like theirs on Monday, the Stallions show realistic aspirations of being a collective presence deep into the postseason.
South County (13-4, 6-3) sits alone in third place in the Patriot District, has won six of their last eight games overall, and remains the only team to have beaten Mount Vernon (16-1, 7-0).
“I think when you’re 6-17 the year before, trying to convince them that you’re going to be successful is harder than anything else,” said Kelly, who led Forest Park to two state titles (2004 and 2006). “It’s a process every single day. Who knows what tomorrow is going to bring?
“If they can relieve themselves of focusing on the offensive end and do everything they can defensively — you can always play defense — it alleviates that pressure to score and they can take care of the rest.”
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
South County 10 10 11 20 — 51
Robert E. Lee 3 14 2 15 — 34
South County– Antwi 6 9-13 21; Brown 3 4-6 12; Adams 2 4-6 8; Peasant 1 3-4 6; Conteh 2 0-3 4.
Team totals: 14 20-32 51.
Lee — Pr. Moseh 4 2-4 11; Oberheim 3 0-0 8; Kolonich 2 0-0 6; Pa. Moseh 2 1-2 5; Jac. Williams 1 0-0 3; Bethea 0 1-2 1.
Team
totals: 12 4-8 34.
Three pointers — South County 3 (Brown 2, Peasant); Lee 6 (Oberheim 2, Kolonich 2, Pr. Moseh, Jac. Williams).
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