Senior Zach Pearl led the way with 22 points in the Seahawks' first win over the Hornets since 2011. (Video by Nick Plum for Synthesis/Koubaroulis LLC./The Washington Post)

Senior Zach Pearl led the way with 22 points in the Seahawks' first win over the Hornets since 2011. (Video by Nick Plum for Synthesis/Koubaroulis LLC./The Washington Post)

Zach Pearl held his follow-through. With his arms outstretched and his palms facing down while he struck a zombie pose, the senior smirked as his South Lakes teammates rallied around him at the free throw line between tosses. With 1 minute 28 seconds left in a neighborhood-rivalry bout with visiting Herndon, the Seahawks needed one more true shot to go up by four points. And Pearl was loving it.

“Near the end of games, I just love having the ball in my hands,” Pearl said. “It’s an all-or-nothing thing, and I like gambling. If I get it all and I win the game, then it’s the best feeling ever.”

The senior sank his second shot, too, and the 15th-ranked Seahawks eventually cashed out with a 64-59 win over the Hornets on Friday in Reston.

“You can probably tell by his body language how much he loved that spotlight,” South Lakes Coach Andrew Duggan said. “If you’re going to act that way, you need to step it up. And he did that.”

On Tuesday, the Seahawks’ body language was considerably stonier. In a game against Jefferson, the team lost its leading scorer and the reigning 5A North region player of the year, Brandon Kamga, to a broken ankle. Marcus Cherry, a sophomore guard, hurt his knee this week in practice and also missed Friday’s game.

When Pearl learned the extent of Kamga’s injury, he was sick to his stomach. He visited Kamga at Reston Hospital Center, but a nurse hassled him when he tried to get inside his teammate’s room during family hours. Kamga got around that technicality.

“He introduced me as his half-brother,” Pearl recalled. “That just shows how close we are.”

Herndon (4-3) led 19-15 after one quarter but couldn’t match the athleticism on the boards from South Lakes (6-1) at both ends down the stretch. Grant Chustz, who started in Kamga’s stead, scored 12 points, nine of them in the second half.

“It was a big deal to be able to start and be successful,” Chustz said. “It’s big shoes to fill.”

Michael Griffin and Dupree Monk led Herndon with 14 points apiece.

Seahawks’ girls also win

Brenda Kamga, Brandon’s twin sister, celebrated taking the lead for South Lakes by calling in a search party. Moments after a pair of Kamga’s free throws put the Seahawks on top of visiting Herndon midway through the third quarter, a swarm of white jerseys and South Lakes Coach Christy Winters Scott grid-searched the area near one of the baskets, scouring the hardwood for any sign of the contact that fell from Kamga’s left eye.

“I have really bad vision, so I couldn’t see without them,” said Kamga, who scored 16 points in a 56-47 win. “I can’t play without my contacts.”

After a brief delay, a photographer along the baseline spotted the lens, and for the balance of the game, Kamga had no problem seeing the floor. She helped spur a 17-0 run that turned an eight-point deficit into a double-digit lead against the Hornets.

Herndon’s shooters — especially Allison Guengerich, who had four three-pointers — gave the Seahawks fits in the first half. So South Lakes (6-1) switched to a box-and-one defense. In the fourth quarter, it held Herndon (5-3) without a three-pointer.

“I wanted to make it just like any other game with what I do,” said forward Princess Aghayere, who finished with 21 points. “But winning was definitely a plus since it was a big rivalry.”