St. Andrew's defense suffocates Sidwell Friends, improve to 7-1.
Northwest, Washington, DC— It was an impressive road win for St. Andrew's Episcopal School (7-1, 3-0) as they stifled the DC state champion Sidwell Friends (10-1, 3-1) 41-31.
Standout players for St. Andrew's were 2020 PG Colin Smalls, American University commit who finished with 12 points, and 2021 SF Benny Williams finished with 15 points respectably.
St. Andrew's smothering defense held Sidwell Friend's in check throughout the whole game, as they held them to 4 points after the first quarter.
I asked Kevin Jones, the head coach from St. Andrew's about the season so far and the previous battles against Sidwell in the past, "Yeah, so far, I think we're 7-1 right now, this win, I know our league record just moved to 3-0, which we're obviously really excited about moving into the (winter) break. We prepared for this game, and I have the utmost respect for the Sidwell Friend's program, they do an excellent job... we might have won a game by one point, won a game by three points, and what you saw today, three-point at the half until we pull away by ten, so we've had some success the last five times winning four of them, but they've been like, extremely close games and battles."
Coach Jones also answered with "I can't remember exactly so don't quote me on this, but I think we held them to four points after the first quarter. We had a grip on the game in the second quarter, we had a couple of poor offensive possessions, quick shots, and they came down and converted a couple of three-pointers, one at the end of the second quarter to make it a three-point game. So in the third quarter, it was a pretty back-and-forth, and eventually, in the fourth, we were able to pull away so again, I think with some execution a little bit. They switched it up to man, some zone, we did the same thing, you know, it was a game of inches, we just made more plays down the stretch, and again really good competitive game."
Superstar Benny Williams was gracious enough to interview after an exhausting, physical game, and he said a few interesting things about what his coach Jones tells his players. "The season is going really good, we got momentum, just working, practicing to keep it going... Our coach keeps telling us we're not good, so we gotta keep that in our head to keep working to be good."
Ryan Cornish led the way for Sidwell Friends with 10 points.
The next game for St. Andrew's is 12/27 2:00 pm against Freedom Christian Academy.