Madison Goes Cold In Season-Ending Loss at Oakton

The gap is narrowing between the girls basketball teams at Oakton and Madison. The schools are less than two miles apart, and the difference between their two teams – both winners of one game in the Northern Region tournament – is about three inches.

That’s the advantage senior Anna Jay brings to the floor for the Warhawks. At 6-foot-3, Jay is a presence regardless of whether she gets her hands on the basketball.

But when she fouled out with 2:49 to play in Wednesday night’s regional quarterfinal, a 40-36 Oakton lead quickly moved to 45-36, and eventually the Cougars were able to pull out a 55-45 win.

For most of the third and fourth quarters, she forced Oakton to think twice about trying to get the ball into the hands of Elizabeth Manner, its 6-foot-tall post player. So when the Cougars weren’t getting their outside shots to fall, the Warhawks were able to mount a comeback. A 40-26 lead with just over five minutes to play began to erode.

When Megan Henshaw nailed a 3-pointer and followed that up with a pair of free throws with 2:55 to play, it looked as if Oakton’s hold on the Northern Region might be in danger.

“I was thinking that we had a chance to beat ‘em,” Henshaw said.

But only seconds later, Jay was called for a foul on Oakton’s Caroline Coyer, and her night, along with her career at Madison, was over. Coyer (15 points) made both free throws, and after Oakton regained possession on a Madison miss, Halley Cummins found Manner (11 points) inside with a nice lob, resulting in a 3-point play which gave the momentum back to the Cougars. It’s a play Oakton couldn’t have made moments before.

“It switches the momentum of the game, since when they drive, she’s our blocker,” said Henshaw, who scored 16 points, 11 in the second half. The sophomore guard nailed four 3-pointers – one of which came from way beyond the arc near the Warhawks bench – to help keep her team in the game.

But perhaps the true damage to Madison’s chances of pulling off an upset came in the game’s first half.

In front of a loud home crowd, Oakton applied pressure to the Warhawks and produced more than a few rushed and ill-advised shots, along with hurried passes that were off the mark. For an important playoff game, it’s understandable that an anxious team might be shaky the first few possessions. But this kept up for almost 11 minutes. By the time Henshaw made a short jumper to break the drought, Oakton was up 12-0.

“Oh my god, it was so rough,” Henshaw said. “I couldn’t make anything. It was so frustrating … we had a lot of good shots, we just couldn’t finish.”

“We came out scared and they came out prepared,” said Warhawks’ coach Kirsten Stone, a 1995 Madison grad. “At the same time, we held them to 11, when’s the last time (that happened)?”

On the opposite sideline, Oakton coach Fred Priester was getting anxious, too.

“When you’re up 11-0 and you’re sitting there thinking, ‘We really should be up about 22,’ you’re thinking, ‘Oh this doesn’t bode well,’” he said.  

The Cougars held Madison to 24 points through three quarters, then allowed 21 in the final frame. But starting with Coyer’s free throw with 2:49 to play, Oakton made 13-of-15 from the line in the final moments.

“They just pull it out. They always pull it out,” said Henshaw, who picked West Springfield over Oakton in the regional semifinal on Friday night. “They make their free throws, they do the little things. That’s what it comes down to.”

For the Warhawks, the season comes to an end with a 17-9 record, including a 9-4 record in the Liberty District. They’re the district runners-up, falling to Stone Bridge in the league tournament final last week. The team’s tallest players, Jay and Carmen Mann, will graduate in the spring, meaning the younger players, like Henshaw and freshman Katie Kerrigan, will have to literally grow into greater roles.

“It happens every year,” Stone said of graduation. “You get new players and someone will step up and do something.”

Henshaw is already looking to next-season’s non-league game with the Cougars.

“Third time’s a charm,” she said.