VIDEO: Osbourn stays strong despite losing two key players last season

One day this season a college coach stopped by Os­bourn High School and took a look at each of the Eagles’ five starters. Not sure which player the coach was focused on, Eagles head basketball coach Mike Dufrene asked him if there was someone in particular he liked.

“I like your starting five,” the coach said.

That’s an understandable sentiment since there is plenty of talent to choose from when you scan the court and see the likes of senior guards Robert Carter, Cedrick Delaney, Corey Bed­ford and Jay Lane and senior center Raphael Edwards out there.

Despite the loss of its top two big men from a year ago, the Eagles have not missed a beat in remaining one of the state’s top Group AAA teams. Last season, Osbourn had the best season in school history, going 24-3 and reaching the state tourna­ment for the first time.

This season, the Eagles are 18-1 and ranked No. 7 in the state by the Associated Press going into Friday’s Cedar Run District showdown with visiting Stonewall (16-5) and have shown no signs of slowing down.

A big part of Osbourn’s success is experience. The Eagles return four starters, including three (Carter, Lane and Delaney) who have played on the varsity since their freshman years. And they’ve also been blessed with the emergence of Edwards, who after playing sparingly last season, has filled in nicely in the post and is the team’s leading scorer (14.6) and rebounder this season.

But what makes Osbourn the most dangerous is that all five starters are capable of being the go-to person on offense any given game. The point production underscores that in two ways.

All five are averaging in double figures and all five have at some point during the season have been the team’s top scorer.

Bedford (13.3 ppg) and Carter (12.4) have shared that honor four times and Lane (13.1) three. Edwards leads the way with five and Delaney has done it twice. Both Edwards and Delaney have finished tied as the leading scorer in one other game.

“When someone has a bad night, we don’t panic,” Dufrene said.

Coming into the season, Dufrene wanted his team to work hard at looking beyond just Carter and Lane as the primary scorers. He wanted to see the ball spread around more as the Eagles kicked their up-tempo game into another gear.

“I told them we had to look for the other three and who is guarding who,” Dufrene said. “We can create good matchup problems and be aggressive on offense.”

Carter, Delaney and Lane form the foundation of Osbourn’s rise to prominence. After years of having solid, but overachieving teams, Dufrene knew this group was special.

All were highly regarded coming into high school and were on the Eagles’ radar screen since they had attended Dufrene’s summer basketball camps as middle schoolers.

They were so talented in fact that Dufrene petitioned the Manassas City school system to let them be on the varsity as eighth graders, a move allowed by the Virginia High School League. The school system, though, vetoed the petition and Osbourn had to wait another year until the group joined the program.

In Carter and Lane, Osbourn has the school’s two most prolific scorers ever. Lane is currently Osbourn’s all-time leading scorer with 1,254 points and Carter is No. 2 at 1,142.

Carter has been a first or second-team all-district pick since his freshman year and Lane has been all-district the last two seasons. Delaney was all-district for the 2010-11 season.

Their arrival marked a change of offensive direction for the Osbourn. In a game during the 2007-08 season, the Eagles scored 45 points in a loss. Afterward, Dufrene remarked to his assistant Evan Swank that those days would soon be over.

“If we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose in the 70’s,” Dufrene said. “We restructured our offense to play up-tempo. This year is still being written, but since they were freshmen, they were expected to win districts, get into the regional final and be in the state tournament. So far, everything has fallen into place.”

The one potential kink in the plan this season was the loss of returning starter Jahaan Roberson to complement what is a guard-oriented team. A senior and member of the varsity since his freshman year, Roberson was expected to step in for the graduated Isaac Freeman down low. But Roberson tore his ACL during a fall league game in September.

Osbourn’s low-post responsibilities fell to the untested Edwards, who was unfazed by his sudden promotion to the starting lineup. Battling Roberson and the 7-1 Freeman last season in practice prepared him well.

“They made him better,” Dufrene said. “He’s such a laid-back kid. He has lot of confidence.”

What strengthens Osbourn even more is that all the starters are willing to set aside scoring averages for the sake of the team.

Lane and Carter have been accustomed to leading the Eagles in scoring over the years, but this year they have no problems passing up baskets if need be to help the offense flow better.

Even Roberson remains connected with the team, sitting on the bench during games and offering assistance wherever needed. There’s also a resolve to put last season’s finish behind them.

Osbourn was on the verge of reaching the state semifinals when L.C. Bird put together a remarkable comeback in the quarterfinals.

Down 57-40 with six minutes left, Bird pressured the Eagles into making bad decisions and rallied to win 73-72.

Carter, in particular, remembers the aftermath of that night as the team just sat in the locker room in total silence for an hour, trying to get a handle on what just happened.

Now they are back in position to make another run at states and ready to do it together. It’s hard for Dufrene to believe it’s been four years since Carter, Delaney and Lane first arrived.

But he knows their team-first attitude along with those who have followed has always been the difference in Osbourn reaching new heights.

“They’ve worked hard,” Dufrene said.

Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-530-3911.