On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa
By Dan Sousa
Loudoun Prep Sports Editor
South Riding
(Feb. 20, 2007) – Normally Broad Run High School senior forward Joe
Tabatabaian is a role player, but on Monday night he had the role of a
lifetime as he helped the Spartans knock off Park View 53-48 to win the
AA Dulles District tournament title at Freedom High School.
Broad Run —
led by the “fire and ice” combo of Adrian Mines and Mark McGlone, along
with the surprising Tabatabaian — jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the
contest and never trailed.
The
district’s preseason favorite, Broad Run (18-7) struggled at times
during the regular season and came into the tournament as the No. 4
seed. The Spartans, however, are playing their best ball of the season
and have won seven straight after becoming one of the lowest boys seeds
in recent memory to capture the district tournament.
“We are happy to be that comet that comes around every few years,” said Broad Run coach Larry Boomer.
The
Spartans earned for the second straight year a road trip to the state’s
No. 1 ranked team. Last year it was R.E. Lee and this year it will be
Millbrook in Winchester.
“Ironic, how many teams play the No. 1 team in the state in the first round in back-to-back years,” asked Boomer.
For Park View (19-6) the loss ended a season in which the Patriots improved from 7-16 the previous year.
“This season
was a huge turnaround for us,” said Park View coach Jeff Schneider.
“Hopefully we are starting a tradition of success again in Park View
basketball.”
The Patriots
were 19-3 this season against every team not named Broad Run, dropping
a 51-49 overtime loss to the Spartans on Jan. 8 and then a
heartbreaking 70-58 on Feb. 9 that prevented the Patriots from claiming
a share of the district regular season title.
“Broad Run beating us three times, I wouldn’t have thought it could happen,” said Schneider.
You can bet
Broad Run AD Jack Kirby wasn’t thinking about making bus plans for a
regional playoff trip after the team hit a midseason slump that
included a 20-day winless streak during which they lost at Potomac
Falls (51-42), at Heritage (62-48) and shockingly at home to Freedom
(65-63). Even when Broad Run starting winning again, it wasn’t pretty
as the team struggled to a 62-60 win on Feb. 2 over winless Briar Woods.
Then the
team, that features nine seniors on the roster, turned things around
behind the leadership of point guard Jamil Snyder. The Spartans are not
deep at the point position so having an off-night is not an option for
Snyder and he has not only responded but he does it with a refreshing
ego-free attitude on the court. Snyder is Old School in the sense that
he is a point guard that considers his job to make his teammates look
good and help his team win, even if that means that some nights his
name doesn’t show up in the scoring column.
“During the
regular season we lost focus,” said Snyder as he clutched the
tournament trophy after Monday’s win. “We knew we had to win or it
would be the last time for us boys to play together and we have been
playing together since third grade. Some of us have known each other
since kindergarten.”
Broad Run in
the last two weeks is now looking like that team that was picked to win
the district all along. Stopping the “M&M” boys (McGlone and Mines)
is no longer an easy solution to stopping the Spartans as Travis Clarke
has found his touch from 3-point range, Ricky Jasper is coming off the
bench and slashing to the basket with confidence and role players such
as Scott Hiatt, Hedi Saidi and Tabatabaian are making clutch plays.
Monday’s
Broad Run blitz to start the game featured two players with different
profiles but each with his own axe to grind. The 6-foot-4 Mines is
often known as the “ice” part of the “fire & ice” tandem with the
more fiery 6-5 McGlone, but since the release of the all-district
selections prior to the start of the tournament, which left Mines
completely off either the first or second team, Mines has taken to the
court with a new attitude.
Mines has
been swatting away shot attempts as if he was personally smacking the
ballots out of coaches hands that didn’t think he warranted an
all-district nod. In the quarterfinals against County he had 13 points
including two dunks, four rebounds and two blocks. In the semifinals he
scored 20 points with another dunk and 11 rebounds and five blocked
shots. It was more of the same Monday as he opened the game with an
acrobatic drive to the basket
McGlone
immediately stole the ball as the Spartans applied fullcourt pressure
and Tabatabaian aggressively to the ball to the hole for a layin. Another Patriot turnover and this time Tabatabaian gave Mines the perfect lob for one of his patent alley-oop dunks.
Park View
again turned the ball over. In fact, the Patriots committed turnovers
on their first six possessions. Normally when a team falls behind 9-0
you would say they were cold from the field but we will never know as
Park View didn’t attempt an official field goal until 4:30 in the game
had elapsed.
Tabatabaian
is a role player for the Spartans and he openly admits this senior
season has not been what he had hoped for. He starts but may not log as
many minutes as some of the players off the bench. He plays aggressive
defense and sets hard screens on offense, but he is not known for his
scoring. That is, until Monday when he proceeded to knock down a
3-pointer and then crash the offensive boards – against the tall Park
View line-up – for another basket. In all, Tabatabaian would score a
career-high 12 points including a key 3-pointer in the final quarter
after Park View had cut the lead to one point.
“This was
the best game in my life, hands down,” said Tabatabaian. “I felt big.
It felt good to be out there. They were sleeping on me so I had to step
up and help my team.”
It looked as
if Broad Run might turn the game into a runaway as the Spartans led
27-13 in the second quarter as McGlone was left open for mid-range
jumpers that barely moved the net as they fell through and Jasper
showed off the proper way to execute a reverse layin.
Park
View battled back, mostly behind the heart and hustle of Thomas Mulabah
who finished with a game-high 21 points and 13 rebounds. Mulabah
is listed a 6-1 in the tournament program but plays like he is 6-6. A
defensive lineman that should get some division 1 interest next year,
Mulabah moved up and down the court with amazing agility for a player
his size. Honestly, taking a charge from Mulabah in full sprint is an
option not covered by most major medical care.
In the
fourth quarter, when Park View threatened to send it down to the wire,
McGlone established himself by getting to the free throw line. Mines
had one last late Valentine for the Maroon Crew of Broad Run with a
block of Mulabah that prevented Park View from cutting the lead to two
points with 1:30 to play.
The Patriots
last gasp came when Amechi Anyaugo took a pass from Mulabah and
reversed the ball in while getting fouled. He completed the three-point
play with 1:04 left to make it 50-47 Broad Run.
The Patriots
then tried for the turnover vs. the quick foul or were simply too slow
to foul. Either way, the result was that 34 seconds elapsed before
McGlone was sent to the line where he dropped two more free throws to
make it 52-48 with 30 seconds left.
Good Spartan
defense slowed the Park View offense down enough that the Patriots took
off another 18 seconds trying to get off a shot attempt. Mulabah was
fouled and he made the first but missed the second. Anyaugo, however,
got the rebound and kicked it back out for a 3-point attempt by Danny
Foley but it was short. Mulabah got the rebound but he also missed as
the ball spun out.
It wasn’t
just going to go Park View’s night and maybe that should have been
clear early in the game when Mines hustled to save a ball from going
out of bounds and he blindly whipped the ball behind his back … and off
a Park View players face and out of bounds.
Broad Run ball. Broad Run ballgame.
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