Last Wednesday, Feb.25, West Potomac Girls Basketball defeated West Springfield 62-40 in the Regional quarterfinals, led by 14 points from sophomore Skylar Strother, to advance to tonight’s Regional semifinals at Hayfield Secondary School at 6:00 p.m.
West Po has yet to play Hayfield this season, however, West Po defeated Hayfield 47-42 in last year’s Regional quarterfinals. This season West Po is 21-5 and 2nd in the region, whereas Hayfield is 25-2 and 1st in the region.
Tonight’s game is a competitive matchup between the top two teams in the region. Offensively West Po is led by Dawn Houston who’s averaging 13.3 points per game while shooting 43% from the field. Defensively the Wolverines are led by junior Delores Harkless who’s averaging 2.9 steals per game.
Both Hayfield and West Po have multiple players who received district honors including West Po seniors Dawn Houston and Abby Beddis who were both named first team All-District. Hayfield also has multiple first team All-District players including Alexis Cox, senior, Eva Philips, senior and Mariah Overton, junior.
With all of Hayfield’s great players, defense will be one of the games deciding factors.
“Our defense is the biggest thing. We need to focus on making sure that we know who we’re guarding and we’re able to just execute what we worked on in practice the whole time,” Kaitlyn Marshall senior said.
Offensively, West Po looks to focus on driving to the basket to score.
“We have a lot of plays we’ve been working on, about just getting to the basket and driving all the way especially because they [Hayfield] don’t have the best man to man defense and usually play a zone,” Zoe Tickner junior said.
The game’s theme is USA out and students are expected to wear red, white and blue. Tonight’s game will decide which team moves onto the Regional Final.
“We have high expectations for the game. We’ve been practicing and working really hard on our new plays, new defense and new offense,” Marshall said. “I think we’re ready and can definitely win if we work at it,” Marshall said.
