o'connell basketball

Both O’Connell Basketball Squads Experience Early Success

By David Steinbacher
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 12/14/06)

Both the Bishop O'Connell girls and boys basketball teams are off to fine starts at the beginning of the 2006-07 high school basketball season.
The O'Connell girls, coached by Jimmy Brown (third season), have an overall record of 2-3 after losses this week to Holy Child and third-ranked Holy Cross.
"We've got a real nice group of girls,” said Brown. “This is the best shooting team that I have had since I've been here. We're kind of small, but we are very scrappy. We've been working real hard and we hope to get better."
In chronological order, the Lady Knights have defeated St. Mary's Ryken 75-21, dropped a 68-63 overtime contest to Georgetown Visitation, and defeated Flint Hill 58-57 (also in overtime).
Two key starters for the Knights are juniors Tiffany Lomax(post/forward) and Ellen Bikowski (guard/forward). They are the “oldest” members of the squad.
"We have no seniors this season,” Brown said. “Tiffany and Ellen are our two captains this season. This is definitely the youngest team that I've had here in my three seasons."
Lomax said one of O’Connell’s goals this season is to win the Virginia Independent State Tournament at the end of the season. Lomax leads the team with nearly eight rebounds per game.
With only 10 players on the entire varsity squad, the other eight players include: sophomores Kate Culhane, Kelly Horvath, Meg Lagos and Chris Roesch as well as freshmen LaTaya Brown, Sara Jones, Shannon Tumelty and Destiny White.
LaTaya Brown is not related to Head Coach Jimmy Brown. The coach is the son of former NFL football player Tom Brown.
After three games, the Knights were led offensively by White (37 points), Horvath (31), Tumelty (31), Lomax (21), Jones (18), Culhane (16), Lagos (15) and Brown (14).
"We're kind of the ‘cardiac kids’ this season,” said Brown. “We want to spread teams out on the offensive end. We want to utilize our speed. We want to force turnovers to compensate for our lack of height. Thus far, we've forced 88 turnovers in merely three contests."
NOTES: The Lady Knights are averaging five three-pointers per contest thus far. In Brown's first full season the Lady Knights, led by Clare and Emily Flach and a host of others, finished 16-15 overall and advanced to the VIS "final four." In 2006, the Knights finished with an overall record of 10-17 and did not qualify for the VIS tournament.
The Bishop O'Connell boys, coached by Joe Wootten (eighth season), weigh-in at 4-1 overall on the young season. The Knights opened the season with four straight wins: 83-48 versus M.M. Washington (D.C.), 80-40 versus Jericho Christian (Md.), 69-39 versus Bishop Gorman (Nev.) and 58-54 versus Neumann-Goretti (Pa.). The last three contests were during the "Washington Examiner Tip Off Classic" at Good Counsel High School.
The Knights dropped a 61-59 decision to WCAC foe St. Mary's Ryken on Dec. 11. The Knights lone loss was played on the road — 70 miles from Arlington — in Leonardtown, Md.
O'Connell led Ryken 27-26 at halftime. The Knights final lead of the contest was 49-47, midway through the fourth quarter. The game was eventually deadlocked at 54 apiece late in the fourth quarter, before Ryken scored seven of the game’s final 12 points to prevail in the initial WCAC contest for both teams this season.
O'Connell is led this season by senior Zach Crimmins (post); juniors Frank Ben-Eze (post/forward), Jason Burns (guard), Jason Clark (guard) and Charlie Schedler (guard); sophomores Derek Baker (guard), Dave Eismeier (guard/forward), Doug Howard (guard), Kevin Jones (forward) and Keith Mitchell (forward), as well as freshmen Zalmico Harmon (guard) and Kendall Marshall (guard).
The squad would not be where it is this season without the unselfish work of three student managers: juniors Donald Darang and Spencer Westmeier and sophomore Michael Adkins.
Former DeMatha Coach Morgan Wootten was quoted a number of years ago saying, "A coach’s job is much, much easier when the team is fortunate to have quality student managers."
The 2007 O'Connell squad has three student managers that meet that qualification.
In the Ryken game, O'Connell was paced offensively by Clark (18 points), Marshall (15), Crimmins (seven), Ben-Eze (six), Eismeier (six), Howard
(four) and Baker (three).