Boys' basketball sneaks by Walter Johnson

Following the previous night's blowout, the Blazers were ready to put the loss behind them. Senior forward Jordan Johnson said that the loss should be used as motivation to get better. On Thursday, they did just that. Looking like an entirely different team the Blazers (7-3) came out on Thursday night and took care of business in crunch time, downing the Walter Johnson Wildcats (0-9) 57-55.

Blair controlled the game for most of the first three quarters, but let Walter Johnson put up a huge rally in the fourth quarter that just fell short. Entering the fourth, the Blazers led the game 52-36. Less than two minutes into the fourth however, the Wildcats knocked down three quick three pointers to suddenly make it a game again at 52-45. The Wildcats seemingly out of nowhere grasped the momentum of the game and charged right back.

But in the final two minutes of the game, Blair took care of the ball, ran down the clock, and found themselves with a number of free-throw opportunities. At 57-55, senior guard Danny Canary was fouled, and senior forward Jordan Johnson grabbed the missed free throw and was also fouled on his put back attempt. In the end, Blair was able to run out the clock on Walter Johnson's run. "They made shots, but we were able to tighten up defensively at the very end,” Coach Damon Pigrom said.

Junior guard Jared Williams and senior guard Danny Canary took control of the game, combining for 41 points to pace the offense. Williams took over in the third quarter, hitting five of his six total three pointers and dished out five assists as well. Canary came off the bench to score 20 points, much of which came from aggressive drives into the paint.

Compared to previous performances, Williams erupted for a massive game. "I was talking to my teammate before the game and he was telling me how I haven't really been playing like myself this season. Whereas today I was finally able to get play like myself in this game.” Coach Pigrom was equally impressed with Williams' performance, "he caught fire at the right time, and I like the fact that the people around him were able to recognize it and keep feeding him the ball.”

The game started out as a back and forth game, with both team knocking down a couple jumpers and free throws. A number of offensive rebounds from forwards Jordan Cobb, Julius Cobb, and Ismael Sangare.

Moving forward the Blazers have a number of tough games, "we still need to work on everything, we are going to have moments like last night [ against Richard Montgomery] where shots don't fall, but our defense and rebounding need to be our constant in those times,” Pigrom said. "We need to work on our traps, we can't allow guards to get out of their traps and make open three pointers like they did tonight,” Williams said.