Landon wins its Winter Invitational Tournament with 68-39 victory over Poolesville

The Bears, victors over St. Anselms in the first round, faced a Poolesville team that had beaten Severn on Wednesday night. The Falcons were led by Derrick Miller, the visitors’ 6’5″ guard/forward who had to bring the ball up against the taller, aggressive Bears. For his efforts and his team leading 12 points (two three’s), the Falcon’s captain made the all WIT team.   Jay Brudish of Severn and Luke McCormick of Saint Anselm’s joined Landon’s Darion Atkins and Chris Hudnut on the list of top tourney players. Bear junior guard, Joe McDonald, was the WIT’s MVP.

The Bears’ JV team was the champion of its tournament– Beating Sidwell Friends in the finals and Springbrook in the 1st round.

To deal with a height deficiency, Pooleville’s Coach Lang tried to protect the paint with an assertive zone D. That tactic failed because Joe McDonald (2) andKellen Miller(1) hit baskets from beyond the arc. A Darion Atkins dunk off a rebound and Kellen’s steal that resulted in hoop and a foul shot. END OF FIRST QUARTER BEARS 23- FALCONS 11.

The home team widened its lead during the next eight minutes. Highlights included an Atkins Diet— Darion Dunk, a Darion blocked shot and a Darion tip in. Joe added two two pointers plus single buckets by Deion Wellington, Kellen Miller and Chris Hudnut. During this period, Tim Hetterman had two consecutive steals that resulted in baskets by his teammates. By the end of the game, there were rumors that the local BB police was looking for Tim; he had picked the pockets of 4 Falcons during his time on the court.  HALFTIME BEARS 38 FALCONS 22.

The third and fourth quarters allowed Coach Luther to test some of his younger players. Milan Bhatt , who has earned a lot of court time, was the leader of a group of younger players, including Junior Robert Leachman, Junior Max Kra, Soph Marshall Peters and Freshman Ethan Schlager. Deion, Darion, Joe and Chris contributed to the Bears’ 52-29 lead at the end of the 3rd Q. While a  two pointer by Tim and three’s by Kellen and Chris were part of the last period’s scoring column, the crowd enjoyed the 4 points which both Ethan and Marshall contributed to the Bears’ FINAL 68-39 SCORE.

BEARS’ SCORINGBEARS’ SCORING

McDONALD     15

ATKINS 14

MILLER  10

HUDNUT  10

WELLINGTON  9

SCHLAGER  4

PETERS  4

HETTERMAN  2

NEXT GAME 1/4 HOME 5PM vs. WOODBERRY FOREST 5PM

POSTS IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS–

•  BEAR TRAX ON CHRISTIAN WEBSTER LANDON 2009/HARVARD 2013 and DANNY RUBIN LANDON 2010/ BC 2014

• FEATURE ON THE UNDEFEATED LANDON HOCKEY TEAM AND THE WESTCHESTER INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT.