http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/sports/game_of_week/vote to vote

AND/OR

            TEXT LANDON TO 9473

As of 8:30pm, the Bears are in 4^th place behind Churchill v. Clarksburg (18 votes), Carroll v, Gonzaga ( 8 votes) and Wise at Bowie (6). The Bears have only 5 votes.

YOU CAN ONLY VOTE 4 TIMES PER HOUR AND THE VOTING STOPS @ MIDNIGHT THURSDAY NIGHT!!!

FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO CLASSMATES, FRIENDS, PARENTS, FACULTY AND FANS OF THE BEARS!!!

GO BEARS!!!

Landon ’11 graduate, Chris Hudnut, perfecting his game at Lawrenceville, had a big game the same night.

Below links to both reports–

Dave Krider, a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, wrote for Max Preps about the Bear guard –http://www.maxpreps.com/blogs/blog.aspx?location=maxwire national blog&schoolid=373d37e4-9397-4b76-ac0b-b90bdcdaacde

Lawrenceville required 3 OT’s to beat league rival Peddie and a large (6’8″, 240#) reason why the Big Red won was Chris Hudnut‘s 21 points.http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2012/01/27/sports/doc4f237524eaf22257163110.txt?viewmode=fullstory

It would be a great disservice to fail to note that the other 10 Bears contributed to this win; scrapping for balls, blocking shots, rebounding, making smart passes, rebounding and scoring key points. A few representative examples:

• as the Maroon took an initial 4 point lead in OT, Deion Wellington hit two key buckets to put the Bears up by one (unofficial total of
• Sophomore Harry Laird won the initial tip, played great D against the visitors’ big men and put up 8points,
• Bear big men, Cyrus House and Sebastian Wells, clogged up the middle, blocked shots, scrambled on the floor to get balls and hustled up ‘n down the court,
•  Lax Midfielder Hank Brown, playing on the hard courts for the first time in a number of years, played yeoman minutes – making sharp passes, taking charges and playing solid D. After the game, he had the same joyous smile as seen after an RP victory, and
• Many, many moments of Bears playing hard to assure a victory.

It did not hurt that EHS and future Wake Forest stud, Amaud Adala Moto did not play due to a bad knee, nor were the Maroon helped by the absence of GWU recruit, Kethan Savage, who fouled out at 1:32 of the 4^th Q when he tried unsuccessfully to steal a ball from future Colonial teammate, Joe Mac.

In fact the scoreboard after almost 4 minutes of the 1^st Q included only points from Kethan and Joe, Landon 6 EHS 5. From that point to the end of the first period, the visitors established a comfortable 19- 10 lead.

END OF 1^ST PERIOD EHS 19 LANDON 10  

The visitors and the home team battled back and forth with the lead fluctuating from 9 points to five and back. The last 3 minutes before half, the Bears defense held the Maroon to two points, while Deion, Tumi Onaghise and Joe baskets brought the margin to 2.

ð It should be noted that a group of VERY talented Landon musicians rocked Riddleburger Gym at halftime with some awesome riffs!!!

HALFTIME EHS 32 LANDON 30

The 8 minutes of the third period saw the two squads with the tie scored five times. As a harbinger of the time as-of-yet unplayed, the Bears #22 scored the last two points of this quarter a 0:03.2

END OF 3^RD QUARTER LANDON 46 EHS 46

The visitors took early command of the game creating a five point lead at 5:45, 55-50 and then 62-55 at 3:37. Buckets by Deion and Sebastian narrowed it to six points. Then Joe took over, scoring the remaining eight points, most notable hitting a 3 pointer well beyond the arc at 0:00

END OF 4^TH QUARTER LANDON 71 EHS 71

The clock was set for four minutes and the two teams showed how their styles varied. EHS relied almost exclusively on their remaining stud, Doug Chappell, while Landon played a team game—a hoop by Joe, followed by a put back bucket by Isaiah Colclough and then two successive scores by Deion. That last entry in the scorebook put the Bears ahead 79-78 with 1:15 remaining. Pressure defenses by both teams forcing misses by the opponents ate up the next 50 seconds. Chappell gave the visitors a lead with 18 seconds left, 80-79. Coach Luther obviously put the ball in Joe’s hands for the remainder of the game and EHS fouled #22 each time. The result—4 straight swishes for Joe from the charity stripe, 83- 80! With 2.7 seconds left, EHS Coach Fitzpatrick called a time out to set up a play and Coach Luther set up a D to stop a score. SURPRISE—as I suspect Coach Luther diagrammed, the inbounds pass ended up in the hands of Joe and time ran out.

FINAL SCORE LANDON 83 EPISCOPAL 80

There were no official statistics available by this posting, the below is a rough approximation of the Bears Scoring:

Player                                                points

McDonald                            49

Wellington                           13

Laird                                        8

Sarter                                                  4

Bradford                                 3

Colclough                               2

Onaghise                                2

House                                                  2

NEXT GAME BEARS @ RP 1/31 at 6pm

Kudos to my main BEAR TRAX correspondent, JOHN NICHOLS, for getting the facts on the Bear v. Bear BB contest played at John Paul Jones Arena on Thursday

UVA (Darion Atkins) 66 Boston College (Danny Rubin) 49

Danny Rubin hit a 3 point shot from the baseline to tie the game at 44 with about 10 minutes left.  UVA went on a 22-5 run after that to turn a close game into a run away.

Danny Rubin was 2 for 2 from the 3-point line and totaled 6 points in 15 minutes of playing time

Darion Atkins was 2 for 3 from the floor, 2 for 2 from the free-throw line and had 3 rebounds in his 12 minutes of playing time.

FROM DARION’S FACE BOOK PAGE: “Good win fellas. Needed that. On another note I want to apologize to those who saw my attempted “dunk”. My legs were gone and I tried ha ha. Won’t happen again!!!”

It should noted that John’s loyalty was heavily in favor of his beloved Whoos and refrained from any Eagle animus directed towards the visitors #31!

BEAR HOOPS TRAX

(CWebb@#23 Harvard 9playing ƛale tonight; DR @ BC and DA @ #21 UVa)

HOOPS REFERENCE

True testament to a top notch BB program is when other hoops teams mention their games in the Bears’ Winter Invitational Hoops tournament. Christ Chapel’s coach said in an interview that the ability of his star, Stephen Brown,  was shown in his play in that set of games:

“The team was invited to the Landon Tournament over Christmas, where it went    2-1. The host school featured guard Joe McDonald, who has committed to George Washington. Brown was named to the all-tournament team there.”

For the full story, go to http://www2.insidenova.com/sports/2012/jan/26/christ-chapel-basketball-standout-stephen-brown-ho-ar-1643445/

BEAR ICE TRAX

From Youngstown Phantoms (20-12-3) website, their 6^th highest scorer:

BEAR LAX

According to the WaPo (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/highschools/all-met/recruit-watch/boys/Lacrosse/index.html), the Bears have 10 Division I recruits (the site includes an 11^th player who no longer attends Landon). The next closest (corrected to include that transfer) is Bullis with 4 college bound players.

For those of you (like this poster) who like to have a good source of information about Bear sports, a team of Landon professionals has updated the history page that trax [sic, for internal consistency; sorry Mr. Dixon; but spell check gives way to editorial “fancies”!) what alumni have done on the next level, click on  http://www.landon.net/page.cfm?p=915.  Among favorite Bear Bites there are the number of these boys who have achieved All American, Player of the Year and Tewaaraton status. The writers intend to include the number of Bears who have gone on to be selected by their team mates to be their Captain; a recent review put that incredibly impressive measure of the quality of these Bears at 22 Captains.  

THE PROCESS OF REVISION OF THIS PAGE IS AN ON-GOING ONE. IF YOU SEE ANYTHING THAT THE LANDON LACROSSE HISTORIANS HAVE MISSED AND/OR WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST OTHER FACTS OR THEMES AS WELL AS SEND ANY OLD PICTURES, PLEASE SEND THEM TO sandy_murdock@yahoo.com and THESE BITS WILL BE SENT TO THE ARCHVISTS!!!!

It should be noted that certainly no other DMV school, including RP, comes close to Landon in terms of these accomplishments.

SINCE TONIGHT’S BIG SHOWDOWN VS. EHS STARTS TOO LATE TO GET ON THE LIST SERVE FOR 7PM DISTRIBUTION, either go to HS2Zoom.com about 9-10pm or wait until Saturday 7pm to receive the score/story.

GO BEARS!!

The visitors put a +1 on their side of the scoreboard at 13:48 of the 1^st period. MATT POTOLICCHIO scored on a rebound from a SATCHEL CLENDENIN shot(no assist was awarded by the referees; one of a number of discernible flaws of the officials in this game!). [Under my understanding of hockey (Section 5 Article 2of the Official Ice Hockey Statistic; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assist_(ice_hockey) ). Unfortunately, the Purple Eagles responded soon thereafter (13:22)(Jack Slater from Chris Meloni). The Bears were called for a high stick (which was invisible) and  Jack Slater returned the favor of the first Gonzaga goal by passing the puck to Chris Meloni whose slap shot crossed the goal line at 4:40. With 1:11 left in the 1^st period, Mr. Slater passed to Vance Walter for the Purple Eagles 3^rd and final goal of the game.

END OF THE 1^ST PERIOD GONZAGA 3 LANDON 1; SOGs Purple Eagles 10 Bears 4

Early in the next 15 minute segment, the referees found fault with the home team’s play and the Bears jumped on the opportunity with GRAHAM SHUE scoring on a rebound (the officials did not assign, nor did I notice who took the forcing shot) at 11:18. Less than a minute later GRAHAM netted another goal to make it Bears 3 Eagles 3. Then at 8:32, big CONNOR MEIKE skated the puck up the ice and as he flew by the blue line, put a wrist shot past the home goalie to put the Bears ahead 4-3

END OF 2^ND PERIOD LANDON 4 GONZAGA 3; SOGs Purple Bears 28 Eagles 16

The Bears were using 4 lines of forwards while their opponents had 3 and double shifted a few of them. SAM KROLL made some key saves; the Landon D all 3 pairs, aided by their swarming forwards limited the Purple Eagles to 7 SOGs in the last stanza; in fact, the visitors shut out the home team (averaging 4 goals @ game in MAPHL) for the final 31:25 minutes of the game.

 FINAL SCORE LANDON 4 GONZAGA 3; SOGs Purple Bears 44 Eagles 23

THAT’S A BEAR AWARD—the defense sealed this victory as noted above; so this recognition could easily go to any of the following names: Christian Meike, Chris Javens, Sellers Garrett, Nick Malone or Michael Anderson. In light of his many crushing checks in the Bear D zone, his movement of the puck up the ice with passes and the occasional rush and most relevantly his slap shot that put the Bears ahead, the recipient is CONNOR MEIKE.

NEXT GAME VS. WHITMAN WE 2/1 @ 4:15 BEARS’ DEN

Long version tomorrow when my fingers thaw.

Coach Luther got his normal (i.e. “exceptional”) performance from Joe McDonald (18 points), but got more than usual from another senior, Deion Wellington, 19 points. The bigger surprise was Junior Sebastian Wells, who did not score, but rebounded against the two taller Saints, blocked several visitor shots, established better rebounding position under both the O and D boards and went to the hard wood to fight for several loose balls.

The Bears began with characteristic intensity and athleticism, forcing the visitors to make 3 turnovers in the 1^st eight minutes. Isaiah Colclough, Addison Sarter, Deion and Joe had buckets to establish a BEARS  15 SAINTS 10 advantage at the end of the 1^st QUARTER.

Saints Goldsborough and Guglielmo demonstrated why they are Division L recruits, scoring 11 of the visitors 14 points during this second period. Landon scored most of its tallies from the free throw line to make the HALFTIME SCORE SAINTS 23 BEARS 21

That visitors’ 2 point margin was halved in the 3^rd period and again the Bears were able to convert free throws but got field goals from Joe and Deion . After 24 minutes, SAINTS 36 BEARS 35.

During the last quarter, Coach Luther brought the talents of SEBASTIAN WELLS. Big junior stood his ground when BIGGER Goldsborough attempted to post the Bear up; the Saint’s roll off of “Sea Bass” put his foot out-of-bounds. Landon’s #12 beat the Saints #21 (a palindrome?) to a rebound when a fellow Bear missed a foul shot. On another occasion the former Oak Hill Academy player, in a tussle with the future Mountain hawk for a rebound, followed the ball to the hard wood to get possession. While not exactly levitating, Sebastian blocked a Saints shot. All of this energy occurred during a 3 minute segment during the last quarter. While he did not score, his activity was instrumental to the Saints not scoring as many points as they wanted to AND allowing Hank Brown,  Addison and Joe  to add to their totals as well a grow the Bears’ lead to 5 points.

FINAL SCORE BEARS 52 SAINTS 44

LANDON SCORING

WELLINGTON                      19

McDONALD                         18

SARTER                                   7

BROWN                                    4

COLCLOUGH                                       2

LAIRD                                        2

MUST GAME FOR ALL BEARS TO ATTEND

LANDON v. EHS FRIDAY 1/27 6PM @ RIDDLEBERGER GYM

• Every team that plays the Bears this season will have the game circled on its calendar-As a group of nice teenage boys, competitive as they may be, it is HARD to keep the pedal to the floor when you score two quick goals
• Landon has won 36 straight games
• Landon is the DEFENDING MAPHL and IAC champions
• The WaPo ranks the team #1

These thoughts are not meant excuses, but observations hopefully explaining why today’s match against MSJ was a little underwhelming. Equally importantly, this match was an opportunity for the Landon players and the coaches to recognize that all MAPHL and IAC opponents have the talent to come back against an early lead.

The Bears took the ice with a full complement of Fs and Ds plus two healthy Gs. MSJ had only ten skaters, so when the Brown “sweatered” visitors scored a goal only 29 seconds into the game and only 3 minutes later upped the score to 2-0, the Bears may have easily forecast that this early trend meant a lot of goals in the 46 remaining minutes. To add to that overconfidence, Goalie ORLANDO AREVALO did not face a shot on goal until 6:06 of the 1^st period. The Bears D stifled all Gaels effort to enter the visitors’ O Zone and forechecking by all 5 Landon skaters kept the puck in their O zone for most of the period.  

END OF 1^ST PERIOD LANDON 2 MSJ 0; SOGs: L 16 MSJ 4

The Bear control of the puck continued for much of the 2^nd period with lots of great forechecking, erasing Gael initiatives by stealing the puck and good body checks. Offensively, the boys in Brown made a lot of clever passes (maybe too clever) and cycled the puck well. Unfortunately, the end results of these offensive forays tended to be wrist shots up into the protective nets above the boards or booming slapshots wide of the goal. MSJ heard the first referee’s whistle and effectively dealt with the Bears’ power play. [Also, it seems that the Landon faces goalies that all must be related to Kenny Dryden.]

A nice MSJ breakout pass moved the puck up into the Landon D zone and a big slapshot dented the net @ 5:57

END OF 2^ND PERIOD LANDON 2 MSJ 1; SOGs: L 8 MSJ 4

While the Bears’ forwards offensive maneuvers and the occasional defenseman’s rush resulted in no more goals. The Landon defense and their young goalie were stalwart. There was a late Landon penalty and the aggressive forechecking on the man down team resulted in some of the better offensive opportunities.

FINAL SCORE LANDON 2 MSJ 1; total SOGs: L34 MSJ 12

Landon Scoring

Time of goal               goal scorer                 assists                                     

@ 14:31                       ISAAC PORTER                       CHRISTIAN MEIKE, JOHN WELLINGTON

@ 11:48                       DAVID LACKNER                  JOEL ROSENZWEIG, JACK BARTON

THAT’S A BEAR AWARD–  in a night in which the Landon defense held onto a lead for 46 minutes, quite, stay-at-home defensive play was critical to the victory. On a day on which he was named a semi-finalist for the incredibly competitive, national Intel Science Talent Search (for details, click on http://www.landon.net/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=898),  it may be a little underwhelming for MIKE ANDERSON to receive the somewhat less prestigious THAT’S A BEAR award for his protection of the Landon goalie, his careful, but aggressive play at the blue line and overall solid, smart play!

BEARS v. GONZAGA 1/25 4:30PM @ FT, DuPONT

The young Bear wrestlers continue to grow every match, and the momentum they started last weekend carried over to this weekend. We traveled to the newly reconditioned “Cage” at High School and won our first IAC match of the year. Hopefully, this will set the tone for the rest of this season and for the next four years for this amazing freshmen crew.

The match started at 145 where Junior Co-captain Jack Albrittain entered back into the line-up for the first time since December. It was great to have his leadership and his toughness back in action. He bumped up essentially 2 weights and earned us a pin in the third period. Episcopal bounced right back and earned two pins at 152 and 160 to take the lead 12-6.

The Bears then won two in a row as freshman Chris Kirtley (170) pinned his opponent in the 1st period and sophomore Andrew Mitchell (182) pinned his opponent in the second period to make the team score 18-12. The Maroon then came back again with a pin at 195 to make the score 18-18. The excitement and anticipation started to grow as the big men were up next.

Sophomore Jules Desroches (220) and Senior Taylor Greene live up to the expectations. Jules earned a major decision 16-2, while Taylor pinned his guy in the first period. After a forfeit to Chris Colleton (106), the Bears jumped back into the lead 34-18. High School was not done, they earned a pin at 113 to close the gap to 34-24.

With four matches left, it could still go either way. Rob Adkins bumped up to 120 and gave the momentum back to the Bears with a 11-6 decision. The score is 37-24 with three matches left. All the Bears need to do is win one match out of three to clinch it. EHS was not going to go down easy. They earned pins at both 126 and 132 to make the score 37-36 going into the last match.

Our Bear was freshman Jarett Witzal who bumped up a weight. With the match on the line, he ended the match quickly with a pin at the 1 minute mark.

Go Bears!!

In the second match, we took on a battered Boys’ Latin team from Baltimore. BL is part of the highly competitive MIAA. They were struggling through some injuries and sickness and only had 7 wrestlers. All the Bears needed to do for the win was earn one victory against some tough wrestlers. The Bears did better than that. The upper weights pulled through again with victories from Andrew Mitchell and freshman Justin Moore (195). The team score ended at 48-27. This squad is on a 4 match winning streak.

The Bears were set for another IAC match on Saturday morning with St. Stephen’s St. Agnes, but it was postponed because of the weather. It will be rescheduled sometime in the near future.

Our next match is a home match against IAC rival St. Alban’s on Wednesday 1/25 

==============================================================================

Someone sent me the link to Harrison Archer’s page for the Denver Pioneers: http://www.denverpioneers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=90258&SPID=10874&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=18600&ATCLID=204959753&Q_SEASON=2011. It would be fun to accumulate Bears’ pages at the next level. SEND ME THEM! 

===============================================================================

The Bears hockey team has two big games this week: @ Mt. St. Joes on Monday, and at Ft. DuPont versus Gonzaga on Wednesday. MSJ got off on the wrong skate in December losing to Calvert Hall and RP, but have found their stride in TIEs against DeMatha and Spaulding. The Purple Eagles have an equally erratic track record– losing to RP and DeMatha in their 1st two games and by virtue of their Purple Puck tournament beat RP twice.  Through their tournament and subsequent games, they have an eight game win streak UNLESS they have problems with the Little Hoyas on Tuesday.

GO BEARS!!!

Landon Bears Hockey 9 Hun Raiders 1

Landon has played this team from Princeton, NJ for a number of years; recently, as the Bears’ skill has increased, the margin over the Raiders has taken the same trajectory. Cursory review of the Hun roster suggested that their program was improving in 2012; names like  Alex Vukasin and Anton Salienko were indicia that players from Eastern Europe may now be part of the Hun family. A new coach from Canada and reported wins over powerhouses Hill and Lawrenceville, as reported inthe Princeton Packet also pointed to an improving program. A pregame conversation with the Raiders’ coach clarified that all of his players were natives of the Garden State and that the “impressive” wins were actually against those schools’ B teams. This is a good 5-3 team from NJ, but not terrifying Huns  from the North.

The Bears established some level of superiority at 13:47 of the 1^st period when Sellers Garrett made a long lead pass to Captain Matt Potolicchio, who scored, BEARS 1 RAIDERS 0. D Mike Anderson made a similar pass to frosh Satchel Clendenin to advance the margin to Bears 2 Raiders 1, which was the score at the end of the 1^st period; SOGs Bears 14, Raiders 2

There is an emerging pattern for the Bears—the 2^nd period is their’s; maybe they get their rhythm then or the depth of their talent begins to impact the play or whatever—but for the last several games, Landon has outshot and outscored their opponents in minutes 15:01 to 30:00. To start the second stanza, the Bears were assessed a penalty, but based on the zooming around of ISAAC PORTER, JOHNNY COBB and JACK SEARS , a casual observer would have thought that the Bears had the extra skater on the ice. After Landon completed its two minutes of penance, MR. POTOLICCHIO cut to the net, received a short, difficult pass from the back hand of WILL BUCKINGHAM who obtained the puck from MR. ANDERSON—the result was GGOOAALL #3 for the Bears @ 7:54. The same line took the next face-off and this time the CAPTAIN passed to his winger, JOEL ROSENZWEIG for another sweet goal @ 7:27, BEARS 4 RAIDERS 0. A minute later, Soph JACK BARTON continued the assault on the visiting Huns @ 6:02. To finish off this period, the young Mr. BARTON passed the puck over to his buddy DAVID LACKNER, who saw his fellow senior, assistant captain MAX GREENWALD wide open on the right. #22 showed why Middlebury wants him to play in NESAC competition for the 2012-2013 season, by one-timing a slap shot that almost took the glove off of the Huns’ goalie @ 1:16. BEARS 6- RAIDERS O was the score at the end of the 2^nd period and the home team had a 30-16 SOG advantage at the end of 30 minutes!

COACH GAMMILL decided that SAM KROLL, who had made 16 nice saves in the first two periods and had yielded no Hun goals, should rest on his laurels. ORLANDO AREVALO moved between the pipes for the final 15 minutes; the Raiders made a similar change, putting a new G into the game, whose # was not on the roster. JOEL  AGAIN got into the scorecard with a goal early in the 3^rd period; the assist came from his line mate, Matt P @ 13:27, BEARS 7 RAIDERS 0. The referees sat a Bear and then two Raiders, giving the home team a powerplay for almost two minutes, the Landon boys converted their opportunity with a Potolicchio to Greenwald to Lackner PP goal @8:53, BEARS 8 RAIDERS O. The 9^th tally started from D and expert painter MIKE ANDERSON, who passed to senior JOEL, who found frosh, JACK SEARS, for a nice goal @7:35, BEARS 9 RAIDERS O. The Huns from the North finally dented the Bears’ nets with a goal @ 3:17 of the 3^rd, scored by the Raiders’ Peter Nawn.

FINAL SCORE BEARS 9 RAIDERS 0; final SOGs BEARS 39 RAIDERS 9

THAT’S A BEAR AWARD—in a high scoring game, the obvious nominee would be one of the flying forwards who zoomed up the ice and dangled their opponents, but instead, the focus goes to the six protectors of the Bears’ goal and in particular, to the all IAC LB and lax defender who discouraged the Huns from venturing into the Bears’ D zone and many times kept the puck in the Landon O zone or prohibited a Raider break out effort. As an exemplar to all the burly Bear Ds, but in recognition for his all around sound D play for the night, the THAT’S A BEAR AWARD goes to Sellers Garrett. It is also consistent  with past TAB awards to recognize that his grandparents travelled all the way to Rockville to see #16 play; please also note that this Bear comes from good athletic stock, his grandmother, Helen, holds many, many national championship trophies for her paddle  tennis play (a goal that daddy, A. Garrett will be pursuing for many years!)

BEARS HOOPS—at the buzzer wins over StA 59-57

A review of the rosters would indicate that the Saint Albans team would be a formidable team; they have 5 hoopsters who are 6’5” to 6’8” whilst the Landon team has two 6’4” and one 6’6” Bears (our tallest starter is 6’4”). The Bulldogs, however, have a 1-2 IAC and 6-10 record and the home team was 1-2 and 10-4.

What those numbers do not incorporate and what the 1^st 16 minutes evidenced are the Bears’ speed, athleticism and energy.  Landon forced 9 turn overs, drew eleven fouls and held the Bulldogs to 3 buckets in the 1^st half. The home team shut out the visitors for one 5.5 minute span and another 3 minute period in the first half.

At the end of the 1^st quarter, the Bears led 15-6 and at half time the margin grew to 34—15. One key to the home advantage was Coach Luther played all but one of his available 12 players; whereas the StA team had fewer players on the court.

The tale of the 2^nd half was the reverse of the first 16 minutes. The Bulldogs played with more intensity, physicality and confidence. The shots,  that missed the StA basket earlier, were getting points in the 3^rd and 4^th quarters. Their defense kept the Bears off the scoreboard for 2 minutes. From a 19 point lead at half, the Bears’ margin was reduced to LANDON 42 StA 30 at the end of the 3^rd quarter. The Bulldogs scored 4 consecutive points to start the last period and the Bears’ effective big man. Tumi Onaghise, fouled out at the end of that run. This trend of diminishing Bear advantage continued down to 1:15 when the Bulldogs tied the home team on dramatic 3 pointer. Isaiah Colclough scored at 0:52.4 to give the Bears a 57-55 lead and an apparent steal by Deion Wellington with 27.8 seconds seemed to seal a victory, but the referees saw that the Bear defender had fouled his StA opponent, Matt Sniezek. The junior guard sank both free throws to again equal the Bears, 57-57. After a home time out, Landon brought the ball up court and as a surprise to no one (especially the StA defenders), the ball was in the hands of Joe McDonald, who drove into the lane and got a shot off. It did not hit the mark, but Deion Wellington anticipated the rebound and touched it back for a basket AS TIME EXPIRED.

The very supportive home crowd rushed the court celebrating this tough victory. As noted earlier, the Bulldogs record did not portend such a tough match, but StA ALWAYS and in every sport regards the Bears as their top rival.

LANDON 59 ST. ALBANS 57

LANDON SCORING

McDONALD                  28

WELLINGTON               11

SARTER                            9

COLCLOUGH                  5

ONAGHISE                    2

RANDOLPH                   2

BRADFORD                   2

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