'They've Manned Up'

Barely a month ago, Coach Jay Tringone wasn’t sure what his team had left after Watkins Mill boys’ basketball met one frustration and heartbreak after another to start their season.

A lackluster loss at Paint Branch. Beat at the buzzer in against Richard Montgomery. A blowout at Springbrook. Another last-second defeat in . Three days later, the Wolverines led Poolesville by five with a minute-and-a-half left, then faltered for their fifth deflating loss of the season.

Players were devastated. Tringone braced for walk-offs. But what ensued instead is still hard for the fifth-year coach to fathom:

Nine straight wins against division opponents have catapulted Watkins Mill to the top of the Montgomery 3A, an 8-0 January capped off two nights ago with a come-from-behind win at Einstein.

“You could tell after that first practice,” after the loss to Poolesville, Tringone said. “We had a sit-down. Everybody just kind of checked their egos at the door and said ‘I’m all in.’ They’ve really stuck together. If you could have been in that room after we lost to Seneca Valley [and Poolesville] and we moved to 0-5—I didn’t know how many guys would show up the next day. It was tough. So I give these guys a lot of credit, because it’s not easy as a teenage kid to man up. They’ve manned up.”

Watkins Mill heads into their home gym Wednesday night and Friday night on the cusp of controlling their position in the postseason, what is shaping up to be the school’s first significant playoff push in years.

Lacing it up against the Wolverines tonight: the last team to beat them. In the teams’ holiday tournament, Rockville came away with a 70-64 win that left Watkins Mill with one win through eight games. A week later, the Wolverines willed a win over Rockville in front of the Rams’ rabid fans.

Watkins Mill’s last two home games brought out their best so far this season: commanding wins and that showed the swift development of a complete offensive attack. Then came a pair of uneven struggles they managed to win nonetheless, proving there's plenty of intestinal fortitude to go with their prodigious outside shooting and across-the-board athleticism.

“The last two games, we’ve been real fatigued,” said point guard Tyvon Grant, the Wolverines’ leading scorer. “So we’re going to come out energized and ready to play, because it is a big game and we like to play in front of big crowds.”

The team’s demeanor, determination and drive are palpably different now that they’re perched atop the standings, said Jeff Adarkwa, a 6’3” senior whose 29 three-pointers have shown a knack for coming in a game’s most crucial moments.

“We’re happy to go to practice,” he said. “We’re not mad anymore. We’re playing like a team.”

With five games left to play, the Wolverines have a 9-5 record in games that count toward playoff seeding in the Maryland 3A West region. That’s good enough for fifth place. The top four teams earn a seed atop the playoff bracket, while the other teams are left to face a random draw.

Still awe-struck at their resurgence last month, Tringone has his squad keening in on the remainder of the regular season, not wanting to look ahead.

“We have to go out and do our job,” he said. “We have to understand the opportunity, we have to understand what’s at hand, and we have to go out and have fun in front of our home crowd.”

After Rockville, Watkins Mill faces Northwood at home Friday night—a rematch of their Jan. 10 56-55 overtime game—then heads to Wheaton on Feb. 7. The Wolverines close the regular season at home against rival Clarksburg on Feb. 10, followed regular-season finale a week later at Churchill.