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West Potomac's Season Ends With 73-58 Patriot District Tournament Loss to Annandale

Wolverines say farewell to two impressive senior guards

As the seconds dwindled off the clock, West Potomac coach David Houston called one final timeout to end the season. Down by double-digits late in the Wolverines’ Patriot District quarterfinal game at Annandale, Houston knew his team wouldn’t repeat as Patriot District tournament champions.

With the game out of hand, he wanted to share one last moment with his senior leaders that last year helped give the Wolverines their first district tournament basketball championship since 1996, before sending them off with an ovation in West Potomac’s 73-58 loss to Annandale.

“Daryl Copeland’s the best player I’ve ever coached,” Houston said. “[He’s the] best player to come out of West Potomac in 12-to-13 years.”

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The 5-foot-8 Copeland, who averaged 19 points per game, exchanged a hug with his coach following the loss to the Atoms and said that he was fortunate to learn under Houston.

“He taught me everything I know and told us more than just basketball. How to be a man in life and take responsibility in everything we do,” Copeland said.

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Annandale led 49-41 entering the final quarter and ran away early in the fourth quarter by going on an 11-0 run. After trailing 60-41 with less than five minutes remaining in the game, West Potomac made a brief rally when senior Jalen Dawson converted on a 3-point play to cut the Atoms’ lead to 60-48 with 3:55 left in the game, but Annandale’s lead was too large to make a comeback.

Houston was still pleased to see his team never give up, despite the Atoms’ distinguishable height advantage. The Wolverines were led by Jalen Dawson and Bryant Fultz who both had 15 points. Copeland ended his high school career with 12 points.

“Jalen Dawson, there’s nobody that plays harder than he does,” Houston said. “You saw that fight [in him] the last three-and-a-half to four minutes, that’s just the type of person he is. Those guys have been with me for three years, and I really appreciate their service. I felt like we never backed down to anybody. We were oversized every night by eight inches each person, but you couldn’t tell it because their hearts were really big.”

Annandale utilized its height throughout the game with opportunistic rebounding by collecting on second-chance layups. The Atoms were led by senior Karl Ziegler, who scored 25 points. Monte McCarty and Sanar Shamdeen both came off the bench to score 13 and 11 points, respectively. After leading 38-35 midway through the third quarter, Annandale went on a 22-6 run all the way through the middle of the fourth quarter.

“What we wanted to do is control the glass,” Annandale coach Anthony Harper said. “The games that we’ve won this year, we’ve won the war on the glass.”

Even though their high school career is over, there’s a good chance that Copeland and Dawson could be reunited in college. Both are looking potentially at Glenville State and Concord in West Virginia to play at the Division II level.

The Wolverines finished their season at 12-10.

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