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Sports

T.C. Williams Buries Mount Vernon Girls at the Foul Line

Performance at the charity stripe leads Titans past Majors

Experience paid off big for the Titans on Wednesday night, as they defeated Mount Vernon 59-50 to move on to the Northern region semifinals.

Mount Vernon normally plays tenacious defense, but on this occasion the team looked fatigued. Samantha Porter, who was voted to the National District's All-Defensive team, played with a jammed right thumb wrapped in bandages, and it clearly affected her ability to not only catch and shoot, but also rebound.

T.C. Williams controlled the offensive glass, giving the Titans multiple second-chance opportunities. Junior Gabby Moss demonstrated great perimeter defense for the Titans and was able to keep Mount Vernon from getting open looks beyond the key. Although it took a few minutes for both teams to settle into their offense, where T.C. Williams really excelled was in free-throw shooting. The Titans shot 70 percent from the line and scored 26 points.

"We worked on that a lot," said T.C. Williams coach Kesha Walton. "We've been shooting terrible from the free-throw line the past couple of games. We said for us to win we have to focus a lot on free throws and knocking shots down when we had them."

Second-quarter play was a little more physical for the Majors, and Porter was able to block a couple shots and come up with a couple steals. Mount Vernon coach Courtney Coffer was clearly unhappy with his team's rebounding effort, and the aggressiveness of his team sent the Titans to the line more often than they could afford. T.C. Williams shot 12 free throws in the second quarter. Some fans started blowing illegal horns in an effort to break the Titans concentration and were given a warning by the game officials.

To begin the third quarter the Majors had trouble handling the ball, resulting in turnovers. Kelly Loftus picked up her hustle and applied pressure to the Titans offense, but she was called for multiple fouls which again sent T.C. Williams to the line. Her frustration started to show and she was given a technical for slamming the ball. Loftus eventually fouled out in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 points.

T.C. Williams also changed its defense to a 1-3-1 zone, a move which proved helpful in maintaining their lead.

"We normally press," Walton said. "But they have a really good point guard. We knew that if we did we might end up chasing them all over the place, so we wanted to play defense from the half court and try to rattle them that way."

Mount Vernon tried to make a comeback late in the game, but with both teams in foul trouble, it was the Titans free-throw shooting that gave them the win. They only made three field goals in the final quarter.

Lafatima Gray is the only Mount Vernon player to experience regional play and coach Coffer acknowledged that his team played like a young group.

"They [T.C. Williams] were more experienced and didn't lose composure when we had success," said Coffer. "We didn't play the way we've been playing all season. T.C. Williams was hungrier."

Moss and Sade Barber led the Titans in scoring with 13 points each. Jasmine Norman finished with 11.

Taylor Dunham scored 16 points for Mount Vernon.

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