Churchill Has a Senior Moment

The seniors on the Winston Churchill High School boys basketball team added yet another milestone to its legacy as one of the strongest classes to ever play boys basketball at Churchill with a victory over Watkins Mill Friday evening, 59-52, on Senior Night.

The win marked the 45th win for the class of 2012 during their three-year career against just 23 losses, most of which came during their sophomore year. They have also won back-to-back division championships.

 “This night was all about the seniors and their great contributions to our program,” Churchill head coach Matt Miller commented following the game. “I can’t say enough about this group of seniors, many of whom played three years of varsity basketball and had to take their lumps early on so we could be successful now.  

"I am proud of these guys and I’m going to really miss them.”

Early on it appeared that the Bulldogs (17-4) had become too caught up in the emotion of the senior night pre-game ceremony as Watkins Mill jumped to a 12-3 lead mid-way through the first quarter. However, a flagrant foul on a Watkins Mill player during a breakaway lay-up attempt by sophomore Matt Moshyedi seemed to ignite much better play and intensity by the Bulldogs and Churchill closed to 15-11 by the end of the quarter.

“There was no question that the play on Matt seemed to wake some of our guys up as no one wants to see that,” Miller noted. “We were very fortunate that Matt was not injured on the play.”

After a sloppy second quarter in which the teams traded leads, the game was tied at 25 at the half. However, the Bulldogs came out of the locker room with renewed focus and intensity and slowly began to take over the game. Seniors Sam Edens (21 points and 7 rebounds) and Quan Gill (11 points and 13 rebounds) had strong second halves for the Bulldogs who pushed the lead to as much as 11 points before settling for the final margin. Sophomores Matt Moshyedi and Allen Njumbe along with senior Louis Rothstein also added timely baskets for Churchill in the second half. 

“I think it just took us a half to completely regain our focus and energy,” said Miller. “Obviously emotions were running high with the senior night celebration and sometimes it’s tough to get back to playing basketball. But to our credit we were resilient tonight and to me the word "resilient" is one of the words you would use to describe this group of seniors throughout their careers. Again, I am honored to have had the opportunity to coach these guys and hopefully we still have a lot more basketball left this season.”

Next up for the Bulldogs will be a date with the Magruder Colonels (20-1) on Tuesday. “We all know what Magruder is about – they are a great team - but at this point in the season we need to go up there and see how we can measure up,” Miller noted. “It’s not going to be easy, it never is at Magruder. But hopefully we will be ready to respond to the challenges they present.”