Northwest Girls Advance to 4A West Title Game

The Northwest girls basketball team littered the floor with 37 turnovers during a 14-point loss to Gaithersburg on Dec. 13, part of a 1-4 start for the Jaguars. Both teams featured athletic rosters, but the Trojans and their smothering full-court defense proved superior.

More than two months later, Northwest is riding a 19-game win streak. On Thursday night, the Jaguars earned a rematch against undefeated Gaithersburg and a chance to show how much they’ve improved.

No. 2 Northwest defeated No. 11 Churchill, 52-31, during the 4A West regional semifinals at NHS. The Jaguars (20-4) will face No. 1 Gaithersburg (22-0) for the region championship at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Blair High School. The Trojans, last season’s 4A West champion and state runner-up, defeated Whitman in the semifinals on Tuesday.

“It feels great,” Northwest senior Katelyn Porter said. "[Reaching the region championship game] was definitely our goal toward the beginning of the season, and the fact that it’s Gaithersburg just makes it better. … We’re a different team than when we played them before. I think it’s going to be a different game.”

On Tuesday, Porter led Northwest with 19 points, including 15 in the second half. The 5-foot-8 senior scored six points during a 12-0 run that gave the Jaguars a 49-23 lead late in the fourth quarter.

After managing 18 points in a first half filled with missed perimeter attempts, Northwest came out attacking the basket in the second half and gradually built a commanding lead.

“In the first half, since they were playing zone, we were mainly looking for outside shots,” Porter said. “We weren’t being aggressive. In the second half, we tried to penetrate more.”

Northwest led 18-11 at halftime. The Jaguars used runs of 9-0 and 7-0 in the third quarter to build a 35-20 advantage entering the final period. Northwest led by as many as 26 points in the second half.

“It was a bad shooting night for us,” Northwest head coach Rob Smith said. “On a positive note, to get a win … by [21] on a bad shooting night, it’s okay with me.”

Carla Batchelor scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Northwest. Danielle Garroutte added nine points and five rebounds.

The Jaguars built a 9-0 lead in the first quarter before going cold. Northwest went more than seven minutes without scoring before a three-point play by Batchelor gave the Jaguars a 12-6 lead with 4:37 remaining in the second quarter. Northwest led by as many as 11 in the first half, when back-to-back buckets by Porter gave the Jaguars an 18-7 advantage.

Churchill sophomore Shira Racoosin came off the bench to lead the Bulldogs with 12 points. Racoosin scored twice in the final 15 seconds of the first half and recorded the first points of the second half, pulling Churchill within five at 18-13. However, Northwest responded with a 9-0 run and led by at least eight points the rest of the contest.

“Our goal was to hold them to around 50 points, and we did,” Churchill head coach Kate McMahon said. “We just could not score. I’ve got to give Shira credit. She hung in there; she came in off the bench and was a great spark for us on offense. But other than that, we’re not a 30-point scoring team. It just did not happen.”

Sarafina Arthur-Williams scored 10 points and grabbed 17 rebounds for Churchill. Leeda Jewayni added seven points.

Northwest defeated Churchill twice during the regular season, including a 52-46 overtime victory on Dec. 20 that started the Jaguars’ win streak. Churchill knocked Northwest out of last season’s regional tournament.

“Even though we beat them both times this season, we knew not to take them lightly,” Garroutte said. “Us seniors had some payback to give, especially for last year. We were out to win.”