Clutch free-throws and a spectacular three-point shooting display by senior guard Darius Smith enabled the Blazers to battle back and defeat the Titans 86-81 in a double overtime thriller.
DEC. 9, OLNEY SWIM CENTER - The Blair boys won their first official swim meet this season after pounding Magruder 124-46. Although the girls lost 70-101, individual girl swimmers improved their times from the non-divisional meet last week. Additionally, the freshmen girls proved their mettle in a number of races, winning some of the girls' crucial points. These results bring the boys' and girls' records to 1-0, and 0-1, respectively.
After hopes of an ACC title were dashed by a final regular season loss to Wake Forest, Maryland advances to the post-season and the Champs Sports Bowl against Purdue in Orlando on Dec. 29.
DEC. 8, ALBERT EINSTEIN GYMNASIUM--
Last Tuesday, the SCO sports staff had the honor and privilege of meeting one of the best local and national sportswriters we know, and a guy that we look up to: Michael Wilbon. This week, he found the time to send us his picks for this week. Read on as our SCO staff take on the legendary Wilbon.
The boys' basketball team hoped their season opener would prove to the community that the program had reversed its fortunes. Instead, the Blazers reverted back to the bad habits that have plagued Blair basketball for nearly a decade: turnovers, lackadaisical defense and poor shot selection.
Though the Blazers never expected to pull out a win against the consistently solid Springbrook team, they were nevertheless disappointed by a lopsided 9-69 loss in the wrestling squad's first dual meet of the season. The team has few returning varsity wrestlers, and even with the use of rookies was forced to forfeit five of the fourteen matches.
The '06-'07 winter season kicks off today with many teams looking to rebound from mediocre performances last year. With a talented batch of young athletes in different sports, Blair's varsity squads have the opportunity to lay down the building blocks for future seasons. Here's a quick preview of the Blazers' winter teams.
The Division II Blair swim team opened their season strongly last Saturday in a non-divisional meet against the Division IV Seneca Valley Eagles. Both the boys and girls swept far past the Eagles, winning 126-41, 110-46, respectively.
Highlighted by an impressive run by the boys' soccer team, Blair varsity sports finished their fall seasons in fine fashion. 2006 saw its share of triumphs and hardships, but in the end, all the teams had seasons to be proud of. We say goodbye to the seniors who have donned Blair colors for the last time and look to the next generation of Blazers to lead the way into the future.
Thursday night games premiere this week on NFL Network, which means either more excitement or more frustration for football fans, and earlier deadlines for us. But either way you slice it, it's football.
Everyone loves David Stern. The NBA's babysitter decides what clothes the athletes wear to games and what ball the players should start using after 35 years of success. What's his latest change? Refs are now whistle-happy when it comes to arguing. Before the season started, Stern discussed with the referee association what his image of NBA players consists of. Accordingly, refs now have an unspoken, zero-tolerance policy for player rants on the court.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our loyal readers out there, and be sure to plop down in front of the tube for some post-stuffing NFL football.
As we reviewed the standings this week, we noticed that there was a discrepancy in the number of games we had each picked. Somehow, Pia had two less games than the rest of us. Josh suggested giving her two losses, hoping to even the field. Phil said we should hand her one win and one loss, keeping her totals even. Wondering what to do and where we had gone wrong, we poured over the last ten weeks of predictions, hoping to find a clue as to where we had done some bad math. As fate would have it, we found the mistake. So what did we find? We omitted two of Pia's correct predictions. Her two more wins plus another week of superiority mean she's pulling away fast, as the rest of us are left stunned and embarrassed. As for this week…
As the cold weather kicks into gear, winter sports teams are starting up again, which can only mean one thing: hockey season. The Community Blair Ice Hockey team will kick off their season tonight as they face the Magruder Colonels in a season opener at 7 p.m. at the Outdoor Wheaton Regional Ice Rink.
NOV. 17, WHEATON INDOOR ICE RINK— The Blair Community ice hockey team is not affiliated or sponsored by the Montgomery Blair High School athletic program or Montgomery County Public Schools. The team is an independent group of Blair students. With high hopes for the 2006-2007 season, the Blair ice hockey team took the ice tonight expecting to flex their offensive muscle against the Magruder Colonels in their season opener. However, the Colonels completely shut down the Blair offense and dominated the Blazer defense, inducing the mercy rule with 2:02 left in the third period with a score of 10-0.
Senior sisters Halsey and Ashlyn Sinclair represented Blair at the Maryland 4A State Championship meet, placing 8th and 33rd respectively with times of 20:17 and 21:23 on the three-mile course.
The SCO sports staff is currently Ballin'!!, and with a full docket of games on the schedule, all our senior experts will be looking to close the gap between their records and Pia's. Too bad she never has a bad week.
NOV. 10, Blazer Stadium— Damascus is not as strong a team as it was last year. A junior-entrenched roster, it lacks the overall leadership its state championship team held in such high esteems. This, however, mattered little as they dominated Blair last night in the Blazers' final game of the season, 35-7.
Last year, Blair's varsity football team was only one win away from a playoff berth. The Blazers lost to former state champions Damascus in their final game, ending the season at 6-4. This year, the Blazers have won only two games and stand at a dismal 2-7. Riding on last year's success, Blair seemed likely to shine again this season. But the Blazers graduated several key seniors last year and were left with a young nucleus of players, many of whom had little to no varsity-level experience.
NOV. 2, WATKIN'S MILL H.S.- Blair finished in typical form this afternoon at the 4A regional cross-country meet, with the girls placing 8th out of 11 teams, and the boys placing 12th out of 12 teams.
Forget the records, the injuries, the controversies and anything else you've heard this week. Dallas vs. Washington is all that matters…
NOV. 4th, Blake— All year, Blair's JV Football team has been about not giving up and fighting back. They are strong in the trenches, and their run-based offense always seems to come through. However, on Saturday against the Blake Bengals, they just fell short. In a game that started with the Bengals up 22-6 and a half-time score of 22-20, Blair was never out of it until the final minutes. Despite the 38-20 score, they came close to staging a surprising comeback.
The Blair boys' varsity soccer team was hoping to play its way to a State Championship this season. The Blazers wanted a piece of the best teams Maryland has to offer: squads like Magruder, Whitman and Churchill. But Blair was unable to get past one team this year that proved to be the thorn in the Blazers' side. Instead of moving one step closer to school history and state glory, the Blazers fell 3-0 to the Walter Johnson Wildcats in last night's 4A West region semifinal in shocking, heartbreaking fashion.
NOV. 3, BLAKE— Just two weeks ago, a winless varsity football season seemed inevitable. After losing seven straight games and scoring only 24 points all season, team morale was low, and so were expectations. But in week eight they finally edged out a victory against the un-ranked Einstein Titans. The game was wet, it was cold and it wasn't pretty — but in the end, they came out on top. This week, despite crowds of naysayers, the Blazers won again, trampling the Blake Bengals (1-8) 29-13.
We found 1914 results.