Stuart Continues Dominance Of Falls Church, Wins 58-40

Bo Walker immediately gave the Falls Church crowd something to cheer about with a powerful block on Stuart's first field goal attempt. Not much else went right for Walker, the crowd, or the Jaguars after that. Ameer Biddle scored ten of his 24 points in the first quarter and Stuart gradually pulled away from Falls Church for a 58-40 win in both teams' National district opener.

The win is Stuart's twelfth straight in the basketball version of the Bell Game, and Raiders fans, nearly outnumbering Jaguars fans, started chants of "this is our house" in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.

Falls Church saw the return of last season's leading scorer Nizar Alamin, but he was limited in minutes and registered only five points and a rebound. Sachin Gangele, who has led the team in scoring every game this season, scored 18 points and had seven rebounds.

No other Jaguar had more than two rebounds though, and the Raiders held a 26-13 advantage on the boards. Falls Church's lack of size again hurt them as 6'4 Zack Danker-Feldman scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds, and 6'3 guard Sam Lebryk exploited a height mismatch on the outside and scored nine points.

Stuart never trailed, and led 29-17 at halftime after holding Falls Church to just five points in the second quarter.

"We wanted to come out early, not give them any hopes of winning," said Biddle, who transferred from Wakefield this year. "I was feeling hot in warm-ups, so I kept shooting and they kept going in."

Gangele did all he could, but received little help and was hurt by the loss of starting point guard Romeo Kc, who missed the game. On the other end, Stuart point guard Ryan Faison kept the tempo low and in Stuart's favor as he waited for his big men to get open down low. Faison, who also scored ten points, including two three pointers, downplayed talk of the rivalry, despite the rivals' history.

"I don't see it as a rivalry game, I just see it as another game of basketball, but if you want to put it that way, it's a really big win," he said. "It felt like a championship game."

Biddle, meanwhile, quickly learned of the rivalry he was thrust into.

"Everyone told me how big the rivalry was. I didn't really understand it, but I grew into it," he said. "I just wanted to keep the tradition going, keep the rivalry going, and get the win."

Falls Church coach TC Papageorge, a Falls Church alum and former basketball player, declined comment and appeared shocked by the game's outcome.