Oakton Girls Win Concorde District Championship

The Oakton girls basketball team won the Concorde District championship despite junior Katherine Coyer’s absence, beating Robinson 47-33.

Katherine Coyer missed the game after rolling her ankle near the end of the Cougars’ semifinal win over Westfield on Wednesday, but her twin sister, junior Caroline Coyer, delivered what the Cougars were going to miss from Katherine, scoring a game-high 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Coyer’s performance earned her MVP honors for the championship game.

“We talked about the fact that one of ours is down,” Oakton coach Fred Priester said. “Someone else has to step up and pick up right where she is.

“That’s just the kind of player [Caroline] is. Anybody who has played against her knows that and anybody who has seen her play more than once definitely knows that.”

The Cougars (23-1) found themselves down against Robinson 8-7 after the first quarter, and it looked like the Rams were going to give the Cougars all they could handle. But Oakton went on a 6-0 run to begin the second quarter to lead 13-8 and eventually led 24-12 at halftime, due in large part to Caroline’s 10-point quarter.

“Sometimes you can get a little blasé about it, because it becomes what you expect,” Priester said. “The bar for [Caroline] is so far up here, when she doesn’t hit that bar, I’m going, ‘What’s up?’’

After halftime, the Cougars succeeded where they have all year, dominating the glass and playing great inside-out defense thanks to sophomore Elizabeth Manner, senior Danielle Davis and Caroline Coyer. Manner finished with 10 points and Davis added seven, including a 3-pointer.

“In the second half, it was a little alarm clock thing,” Priester said. “You know, ‘Darn it, let’s play better. Let’s play harder.’ Just to remind them that we didn’t get here by accident. We haven’t had this season by accident.”

For Robinson (16-7), junior Megan Green led the team with 10 points. Junior Tyler Hansen added six on two 3-pointers, four points below her team-leading average. Senior Lauren Denham and junior Brigitte Kuter each scored five.

Oakton will host Annandale in the first round of the Northern Region tournament.

“We’re not going to overlook them,” Priester said. “We know that if we don’t bring our A-game and everybody doesn’t step up like they did tonight, we’re going to be in trouble.”

For insight into how Priester has shaped his team into champions, watch Oakton Patch's audio slideshow of a recent girls basketball practice by clicking .