They are one of the few teams in the Northern Region with a large chunk of its roster returning intact next season. Some area coaches have already dubbed them the favorites to win a region title.
But all that attention has done is forced T.C. Williams’ boys basketball team to focus on what it hasn’t done well this summer. Even after a blowout 63-41 victory over Potomac in a Sleepy Thompson Summer League semifinal game at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes on Thursday evening there are still plenty of flaws left to correct.
“We can win a game by that many points and still not be satisfied at all,” said T.C. Williams rising senior point guard Walt Smith. “There are going to be a lot of teams gunning for us this season. We have to be ready for them.”
Rising senior guard Glenn Andrews led T.C. Williams with a game-high 26 points and rising senior guard Kamal Terrel added 14. Potomac center Donald Vaughan scored 13 points in a game Andrews broke open with five straight points to start the second half to give T.C. Williams a double-digit lead.
It has been a busy summer for the 6-foot-2 Andrews, who has played Amateur Athletic Union basketball with Boo Williams, a prestigious travel team featuring the top players in Virginia. The AAU circuit has taken Andrews, a reserve guard for Boo Williams, to tournaments in Florida, Georgia and Texas twice. It has also helped raise the college profile of a player who last season helped the Titans to a 24-4 record.
“It’s been good for me because you go against top players all the time,” Andrews said. “Competition like that makes your whole game better.”
Wakefield 57, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes 50
In the night’s second semifinal, Wakefield held off a late rally by St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes for a 57-50 victory.
Rising senior guard George Johnson scored a game-high 16 points for Wakefield, which reaches the Sleepy Thompson final for the first time in five years participating in the league. The Warriors were coming off a regular-season victory over Potomac last week where they had just four players. Wakefield later had to forfeit that contest.
The Warriors face T.C. Williams in the Sleepy Thompson Summer League championship at 7 p.m., Friday.
