Not four minutes into the Friday night varsity affair, the Clarksburg Coyotes poured on 13 points over the Walter Johnson Wildcats. Senior Trinity Turner and junior London Turner combined for 10 points while senior Italia Jackman splashed a three-ball to silence half the crowd.
The roars from the away crowd rumbled through the gymnasium until a light outage forced a stoppage. The lights, which cut out not 20 minutes prior during the junior varsity game, flickered out a second time, which cooled the red-hot Coyotes offense. In that time, Wildcats head coach Chris Donlon brought his team together to regroup.
“It’s 13-0 and the lights go out and I think that was beneficial to our advantage,” Donlon said. “We settled each other down. We have a great group of leaders on this team. Truthfully, I think we just really needed to see a basket go in. Then, we were able to chip away slowly.”
Minutes later, with the fluorescent lighting restored, the game resumed, and the Wildcats pounced, scoring seven straight points and finishing the quarter down a modest four, 17-13.

As the game progressed, both teams traded four-point runs and jostled to create separation on the scoreboard. London Turner found her groove, scoring 12 points in the second frame while the Wildcats combined for 14. With contributions from Jackman and Trinity, the first half ended with the Coyotes boasting a 37-27 lead.
Adjustments were made during halftime that sparked the Wildcats offense, where they dropped 21-points in the third quarter whereas the Coyotes scraped together 10 points after London’s shooting cooled and the Wildcats countered. It started with freshman Mira Mann, who scored six points in the quarter and finished the game with 12.
“Mira just stepped-up big tonight,” Donlon said. “She just has so such poise to her. It’s really impressive to see a player her age just be so controlled and relaxed on the court. The moment is never too big and she makes the right read and it’s really impressive. It’s a great thing to have, to come off the bench tonight the way she did and really just settle everyone down.”
Mann’s scoring was followed up with junior Norah Yousef’s nine in the quarter, including a three-point shot from the right wing to give the Wildcats their first lead of the night with 1:08 remaining to make the score 44-43.
“[The three-point shot] felt amazing,” Youssef said. “It wasn’t falling in the first half. To finally see it sink in, to see that Wildcats [scoreboard] go up, it was so exciting for everybody. I love seeing the bench go up. It’s a great feeling.”
Closing out the third quarter with a short-range shot was junior Kendall Alexander, scoring her 14th point of the night and putting the Wildcats up 48-47 as the buzzer sounded. Alexander had been a consistent threat when the Wildcat offense slugged through the first half, and a tough-angle shot down low surrounded by Coyotes represented the toughness the Bethesda team had in clawing back into the contest.
“I was patient on the ball and my teammates really looked for me in the transition,” Alexander said. “I think we ran our plays and executed. We executed on defense and [that] leads our offense.”
“I think she’s really just one of the best players to work with,” Youssef said of Alexander. “She’s really cooperative and working with her feels like a really good connection. When we get hyped together, it turns [up] the gym.”
The final frame saw an eight-point explosion by Youssef, who totaled 22 on the night and grew the lead to 60-51 with four minutes left. The Coyotes couldn’t replicate their basket-scoring ability of the first half, partially due to the corrections made by the Wildcats at halftime.

“Just be physical, be aggressive, go rebound,” Donlon said, sharing what was communicated at halftime. “[The Coyotes] are good. [Head Coach Cecelia Natoli] is a fantastic coach. She’s been doing this forever. They’re going to be ready to go at all times. [But] we got to be ready to go and keep going.”
In the final two minutes the Coyotes brought the lead down to three, where the freshman Mann, scored her 12th point of the night. A Jackman put-back kept the Coyotes alive, but as the Wildcats inbounded the ball and avoided being fouled in the final 10 seconds, the buzzer sounded, sealing the home team’s 63-60 victory.
“Just being able to help my team really motivates me,” Mann said of her clutch two-pointer. “Just being able to help the team any way I can.”
Upcoming Games:
Walter Johnson @ Bethesda-chevy Chase (Dec. 19, 7:15 p.m.), vs. Wootton (Dec. 21, 7:15 p.m.)
Clarksburg @ Damascus (Dec. 19, 7:15 p.m.), @ Northwest (Dec. 21, 7:15 p.m.)