Bulldogs Clash with Hornets in Game of the Week
Herndon, VA - In what has become the most anticipated game of the first half of the season in the Northern Region, defending region champion Herndon will host Concorde District rival Westfield on Friday night in the TCC Sports Game of the Week.
The Hornets (10-1 overall, 4-0 district) will put a 28-game winning streak against regional opponents on the line against one of the region's most exciting young teams in the Bulldogs, which enter 10-3 overall and 5-0 in the district. Herndon, ranked ninth in the metro area by The Washington Post, has dispatched of its past three opponents - Centreville, Oakton and Robinson - by an average of 25.3 points per game since it lone loss of the season, a 59-57 setback to Notre Dame Academy in the final of the Hubert Davis Tournament at Lake
Braddock over the holidays.
The two teams, which met a total of seven times over the previous two seasons (Herndon won four of the contests), look along with T.C. Williams (9-3), Wakefield (10-1), West Springfield (11-2) and Madison (11-3) to be the class of the region this season.
A year after finishing 26-5 behind state player of the year Scottie Reynolds, nearly becoming the first region team to win a state title since Lee did so in 1983, the Hornets look to be more balanced and perhaps even as dangerous.
This year's version features 6-foot-6 senior forward Danny Jones, who enters as the Hornets leading scorer at 18.6 points per game. Jones, who had a season-high 27 in a 78-71 win over Lake Braddock on Dec. 29, is a three-year starter and will be matched up at times against Westfield's star post player, junior forward Maurice Hubbard. The 6-foot-7 Hubbard enters averaging 17.6 points and over 10 rebounds a game.
Jones is one of four Herndon players averaging double-figures entering Friday's contest. Each of the Hornets' three starting guards - seniors C.J. Glenn (12.4 points), Richard Gore (12.4) and Matt Seeger (10.1) - enter averaging more than 10 points a game and the trio team with Jones to account for nearly 53 of the 68 points Herndon scores per game.
Complementing Hubbard, meanwhile are junior point guards Jamie Richardson (10.2), senior guard Josh Witmer (9.1) and junior forward Jon Gaston (8.5), each of whom has been instrumental in the Bulldogs winning eight of their last nine contests since a 56-51 setback to South Lakes on Dec. 12.
