Tom Roff/Special to The Gazette Jewish Day's David Ochs (22) spins up a shot in traffic against Barrie defenders Bobby Sharefeddin (42) and Josh Colwell.

His finished product, in fact, has drawn rave reviews from even his staunchest critics, such as Jewish Day coach Vic Littman, whose 22-5 Lions were dominated, 52-28, by the Mustangs (27-6) during Saturday night's Potomac Valley Athletic Conference tournament final at Washington International School.

"They're just too good," said Littman, whose team lost to Barrie three times this year. "They work very hard. They play great team defense."

Myers began his process of building a conference champion, much like that same chef prepares to make his award-winning meal, by picking the right ingredients. The Mustangs coach joined the small Silver Spring school three years ago, the same time the Barrie joined the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference.

Upon his arrival, Myers began collecting the necessary talent to transform the once struggling program into a contender. His first season, which concluded with a 12-12 record and one playoff win, saw the emergence of now-senior shooting guard Bobby Sharafeddian, who has led the Mustangs in scoring the past three years.

Then came Good Counsel transfer Frank Mason, a versatile swingman, who can score from just about everywhere and can defend like a wounded bear fighting for its life. With Mason in the fold and with Sharafeddian continuing to torch the nets, the Mustangs set a school-record for wins with a 17-7 record that included a trip to the PVAC tournament semifinals last season.

"Bobby and them kids took [the Hebrew playoff loss] pretty hard," Myers said of the last loss last season. "What they decided was that they would go to camps together as a team, that they would work hard in the weight room and all of that stuff just paid off."

To go along with that renewed sense of commitment, Myers added the finishing touches to his lineup with the addition of transfer students D.J. Brooks and Josh Colwell.

"That was just two pieces that were missing from last year's team," Myers said.

Brooks, who came via Baltimore City, became the team's point guard while Colwell, who transferred over from Newport, gave the Mustangs a much-needed inside presence to complement their outside game.

With the roster set, Myers devised an aggressive non-conference schedule this season, that included games against area powerhouses Bullis, Quince Orchard and Montrose Christian, to add the proper seasoning to his players for their title run. While the wins weren't plentiful in the early going, the Mustangs gained the confidence and togetherness needed to complete its first ever clean sweep of PVAC regular-season opponents (16-0) and complete domination of the league tournament.

Barrie beat its three tournament opponents, Field, Hebrew Academy and Jewish Day, by a combined 105 points.

"We played hard," said Mason, who was named the tournament's most valuable player. "We worked hard. You don't understand how hard we worked the whole season. Finally it pays off. We win the championship. We go undefeated.

"It's who wants it more and we wanted it more, no matter who we were playing. After the season before, I knew we could do this."

Barrie showed that confidence early against Jewish Day as the Mustangs built leads of 13-5 after one quarter and 32-11 by halftime. Mason and Colwell paced Barrie offensively in the first half, combining for 24 of the team's 32 first-half points.

Mason, who finished with a game-high 20 points and 9 rebounds, poured in 14 points on fast-break layups, offensive stickbacks, a 3-pointer and three free throws. Colwell (14 points, 12 rebounds) had one 3-pointer but did most of his damage in the paint.

The fast start, plus some aggressive, trapping defense, stymied Jewish Day's offensive strategy. The high-scoring back-court combination of Gabe and Jesse Dymond produced just 19 points and many errant shots. Gabe, who had 12 3-pointers in one game this year, finished with just 8 points while being harassed by Mason all over the court. Jesse scored a team-high 11.

"We stuck to our game plan a little bit except we took too many shots early on," Gabe Dymond said. "We wanted to hold the ball for a minute or two to keep it low scoring because we don't have enough scorers to win a high-scoring game. I forced a lot of shots. They're just a better team than us and they just got us."