DERAILED: GW's season comes to a crashing halt

PORTSMOUTH — For three quarters, the George Washington Eagles were on track to advance to the semifinals of the Group AAA boys basketball state tournament.

But the fourth quarter proved to be the Eagles’ undoing.

King’s Fork claimed a 60-53 victory by outscoring GW 18-2 in the final period Saturday afternoon at Churchland High School, extending its winning streak to 20 games.

The Bulldogs (29-1) held the Eagles without a field goal in the final 8 minutes and advanced to face Portsmouth in Wednesday’s semifinals in Richmond. GW finishes the season with a 23-5 record after reaching states for the fourth year in a row.

“They have nothing to be ashamed of — they played,” said Eagles coach Bobby Martin. “We just didn’t make a few plays at the end, missed a few free throws down the stretch and just had some big calls that went against us that were pretty obvious. … We played well enough to go to the next round, we just didn’t finish.”

The Eagles led for nearly the entire contest before the Bulldogs pulled ahead on a putback by 6-foot-8 senior center Davante Gardner with 2:14 to go. Then King’s Fork, which was just 13-of-27 from the free throw line up to that point, made six straight in the final 32 seconds to put the game away. That included a 4-for-4 effort from Gardner, including the final two with 11 seconds remaining.

“I told him, ‘Davante, you make these two, this game’s over,’” said Bulldogs coach Joshua Worrell. “It’s a 3-possession game with 11 seconds to go. But I think we’ve got to do a better job of making free throws or we’re not going to have this opportunity again.”

GW came out firing early, bolting to a 10-2 advantage less than 2 minutes into the game. A layup by Chris White made it 14-4 before King’s Fork began chipping away.

Senior center Stephen Coles picked up his second foul with 2:06 to play in the opening period and went to the bench for the remainder of the first half. But sophomore Daniel Clark picked up the slack, scoring four points and grabbing six rebounds to help GW take a 31-26 lead into the locker room. Clark finished with six points, eight rebounds and a steal.

Coles returned to the game with 7:09 remaining in the third quarter and picked up his third foul just 15 seconds later. The Eagles’ lead had dwindled to two points by the time he came back at the 3:43 mark, but GW went on a 14-7 run, capped by a Jerail Howerton jumper, and led 51-42 heading to the fourth quarter. Sophomore forward C.J. Barksdale scored eight of his 11 points in the third.

The Bulldogs’ rally began with a 3-pointer by Jamar Wertz with 5:45 to go. Moments later, Wertz sank 2-of-3 free throws to pull King’s Fork within 51-49. Moments later, Jaquon Parker converted the second of two free throws to tie it at 52 with 2:55 to go.

After Gardner put the Bulldogs ahead, Coles went 1-for-2 from the line to pull GW within 54-53, but the Eagles could not take advantage of a traveling call against King’s Fork at the 1:05 mark and the Bulldogs began putting it away at the line. Gardner hit two free throws with 32 seconds left, Chris Harris added a pair with 16 seconds remaining and Gardner made two more five seconds later.

Wertz led King’s Fork with 17 points, while Gardner added 14 and Parker finished with 12.

Wertz, one of six seniors on the Bulldogs’ roster, admitted thinking about the possible end of his season and his high school career as the fourth quarter got under way.

“That popped in my head,” he said, “but I just wouldn’t accept that thought, so I just played as hard as we can, and we came out and won.”

Howerton paced GW with 14 points. Barksdale scored 11 and Greg Wimbush added 10.

GW will lose four seniors — Coles, Stephen Wimbush, Darryl Jones and David Slade — to graduation, but should return four starters next season.