When McLean’s girls varsity basketball team tipped off against Marshall High School on Monday night, Highlander spirits were low. Two weeks earlier, McLean had lost narrowly 42-41 to Yorktown, and just one week prior, McLean lost in a 49-26 blowout to rival Langley High School. Prior to the Marshall game, McLean fought hard to recuperate.
“I think we just marked the Langley game as ground zero,” senior forward Ally Hodder said. “That was a tough loss for us, so we just treated the rest of the week as a reset, working together as a team and not turning against each other.”
In the week before, McLean worked directly on building a strong, impenetrable defense.
“Hopefully, we are going to pick up our defensive intensity a little bit, as well as provide a little bit of help on the offside,” Head coach Pat Deegan said before the game. “We also would like to get a little bit more transition going up and down the floor as opposed to playing half-court.”
Right from the tip-off—which Marshall won—McLean came out roaring on both sides of the ball. Their tight defense froze up the Statesmen’s drives to the basket, and senior point guard and captain Tatum Olson got the game started with a swished three-point shot, setting the tone of the game.
McLean played a hard, physical defense, which often led to fouls. Notably, Marshall captain Hanna Rhode drew several shooting fouls in just the first quarter, but she wasn’t able to capitalize on most of her free-throw shots.
With McLean pulling ahead 11-4, Marshall head coach Doug Sawitzky called a time-out moments before the end of the first quarter. “This is the game right here,” Sawitzky barked, referencing Olson’s full-fledged dive for the ball in Marshall territory, which won McLean an unlikely turnover.
Despite Sawitzky’s pep talk for self-sacrifice, Marshall fared equally poorly during the second quarter. Tatum Olson hit yet another three-point shot—her third of the game so far—bringing McLean to a 23-13 lead.
McLean’s rebound game also proved to be perhaps their greatest strength. Through the rest of the match, Marshall found immense difficulty throwing up second-chance shots, while Mclean found several attempts in nearly every possession.
By the end of the first half, Marshall had called three time-outs. McLean, by contrast, had called zero.
McLean continued to dominate during the second half, frequently converting fast breaks. With the score at 38-17, McLean started subbing in their benched players. Deegan started to utilize his bench in the second half as it became clear that Marshall didn’t have any chance of catching up. Everyone who came off the bench contributed on the offensive end. Notably, Freshman Charlotte Gaskins found several three-point shots to the elation of the crowd.
“Charlotte knocked down some awesome threes coming into the game,” Hodder said. “I thought that was really awesome.”
As the clock wound down, it looked as if the Highlanders were in a shootaround in the second half due to Marshall’s lackluster defense. Finally, the buzzer sounded with the scoreboard sitting at 58-27—McLean more than doubling Marshall’s points.
“I think it was a great win for us, especially coming back after the Langley loss,” Hodder said. “We beat Marshall by 9 the first time, so this is a great, dominant team win tonight.”
The team attributes the win to their understanding of Marshall’s team.
“I think we knew their [style] better,” Hodder said. “Marshall has three good shooters and some large post players that make some distributing passes on the floor. We came out and really wanted to focus and work on our defense, and I think we did that tonight. We came out to play from the beginning.”