Potomac Falls tops Briar Woods in Virginia AA Dulles District boys’ basketball

Potomac Falls’s boys’ basketball players spent more time in the past week watching film than they had in all of senior Greg Graves’s previous three years in the program.

After three consecutive losses at the end of January, the Panthers needed to see what ailed them. What they learned, Potomac Falls Coach Jeff Hawes said, was that their length mattered little if they were standing still.

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After a 50-43 win over Briar Woods in Ashburn on Wednesday night, the Panthers might be more apt to break out the popcorn and enjoy the next film session. The Virginia AA Dulles District win was the third straight for Potomac Falls, which is rounding into form just in time for the postseason.

“We were able to see ourselves from different angles” watching film, Graves said. “We were able to see what we were messing up and how we needed to fix things. That’s something that’s helped us a lot coming down this stretch.”

Briar Woods, looking to lock up the district title, was missing perhaps its best defender in Correy Facciane, who was out with a stomach virus. The same illness slowed star point guard Myles Tate, who missed the Falcons’ loss on Tuesday with the same virus.

Potomac Falls (14-7, 10-5) took advantage, angling its defense to take the Falcons’ two best scorers out of the game and forcing Briar Woods to settle for outside looks from its third and fourth options.

As the Falcons (16-5, 12-3) struggled from three-point range — shooting 7 of 32 — the Panthers looked inside to Graves during the second and third quarters to open up a 10-point lead.

The 6-foot-7 Graves, who will play for Mount St. Mary’s, scored 16 of his game-high 21 points during that stretch, including a monster one-handed dunk that was part of a 15-2 run before the half.

Briar Woods threatened to make it a game in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to five on a three-pointer from Tate with 52.6 seconds to play. But the Panthers had enough of a cushion to survive and held on to capture the third seed in the district tournament next week.

“I feel like we’re starting to get there,” said Graves, who also had 13 rebounds. “My team is starting to understand how we really need to play and what we need to do to start winning games.”