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Schools

Haverford School Falls In Great Game Against Germantown Academy

The Fords lost a heart-breaker, 56-54, in the final seconds.

Henry Fairfax was seething with frustration. The look on basketball coach’s face was mirrored by his team, who were also angry by what just happened—another close-call, Inter-Academic League loss that came after the Fords blew a 10-point second-half lead.

The culprit this time was Germantown Academy, which squeaked by the Fords, 56-54, on Tuesday afternoon on a pair of James Drury foul shots with 13.9 seconds to play in the game.

The Fords dropped to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in the Inter-Ac League with the defeat, which produced the best performance of Tao Xu this season. The nearly 7-foot tall junior exchange student from China scored a career-best 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots.

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He was truly dominating.

But the Fords, the young Fords, coughed up a brilliant chance to beat one of the premier teams in the Inter-Ac.

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Fairfax, however, was unmoved. He still very much believes in this team—and if anyone is going to catch the Fords, now seems to be the time. This young team has made rapid improvement since the beginning of the season, and it only seems it will get better.

One issue that needs to be addressed, which Fairfax is well aware of, is closing games out.

“This is a new collection of kids, and as I’ve said before, we are in critical positions, but it’s also about being young in critical points in the game, too,” Fairfax pointed out. “Understanding how to win is a big part of pulling a game out like that. We separated ourselves from them, we built a 10-point lead, and we didn’t keep our foot on the gas. That stings. Believe me it does. We have some high-character kids on this team that want to be successful. They will be. We just have to close better than we have.”

The Haverford School led 45-35 midway through the third quarter, and with 6:09 to play, it was 45-45. After Germantown Academy’s Greg Dotson hit a free throw for one of his game-high 21 points, the Patriots led 52-47, and were primed to run away with the game. But the Fords pulled them back.

Led by Xu, who scored four of Haverford School’s last seven points, the Fords tied it at 54-54 on a pair of Xu free throws.

A costly turnover in the game’s closing seconds led to the Pats’ Drury going to the free throw line, but with 13.9 left, the Fords missed two shots to tie it.

“We haven’t been able to close it and finish the way I like,” Fairfax said. Then he stopped for a second and thought, “but you know what, I still think we’re the best team in the Inter-Ac. I’m not taking that back. I know we’re 2-2, but I believe in these kids and they’ve all shown they have ability.”

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