Roosevelt Can't Hold On

With just over three minutes remaining in the first half of Thursday’s Class 4A state semifinal game against Patterson High School, the had a 10-point lead, the momentum, and Patterson star guard Aquille Carr on the bench with three fouls.

In the third quarter, though, everything changed. 25-13 in the period and Carr scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as the Clippers beat the Raiders 67-59 at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center.

The Clippers (25-1) will face North Point in the 4A state title game on Saturday at 8 p.m.

For the Raiders (17-9), Thursday’s loss marked the second year in a row that they had lost in the state semifinals – agonizingly short of a trip to the championship game.

“I just told the guys I was really proud of them,” Roosevelt coach Brendan O’Connell said. “Especially in the middle of the year, at one point we might have been sitting at 11-8 or something like that, and no one had us getting back here. So to get back here – a lot of guys got back here for the second time – and to come out of our County like we did, it’s a real accomplishment.”

The Clippers opened the game by jumping out to an 11-5 lead, but the Raiders used an 8-0 run and rallied back to go to go ahead on a lay-in by junior guard Akil Charles. Carr picked up his second foul trying to steal the ball from junior guard with 40.7 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The Raiders led 17-16 after one quarter, and looked ready to extend their advantage after Carr picked up his third foul on a baseline move with 4:34 remaining in the half. On the ensuing possession, Roosevelt’s drained a jumper to give ERHS a 25-16 lead. They went into the locker room at the break up 31-26.

The second half was a different story, though, as Patterson found its offense and Roosevelt’s disappeared. After junior guard made a free throw with 5:27 remaining in the third quarter to keep the Raiders up by a point, Roosevelt went scoreless until a lay-in by senior guard l with 2:52 to go in the quarter.

By that time, though, the Raiders were already down by eight, and they never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

Senior guard Rickey Meekins hit several big 3-pointers for the Clippers on his way to 16 points, and the explosive 5-foot-6 Carr showed what makes him one of the top players in Baltimore City as he scored from a variety of spots on the floor.

“I just thought in the first half, when Aquille got in foul trouble, they really got us into their tempo of playing,” Patterson coach harry Martin said. “31-26, that type of game is not where we want to put it. …. I just thought that the transition in the second quarter, our defensive pressure kind of got to them, and I think our conditioning kind of wore them down in the second half.”

Roosevelt didn’t help its cause by going just 3-of-11 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

“I can’t complain about the free throws too much,” O’Connell said, “because we shot them pretty well early to get us out to that lead. But yeah, in a close game little things like that make a difference. A couple of offensive rebounds, a couple of turnovers, missing a couple of free throws.”

Miller scored 17 points to lead the Raiders, while senior forward had 15 points and four rebounds in his final high school game. Fellow senior Miles had six points a team high eight rebounds, while Charles finished with 12 points.

Team

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Final

Patterson

16

10

25

16

67

Roosevelt

17

14

13

15

59

PATTERSON  SCORERS

Players

Points

Aquille Carr

25

Rickey Meekins

16

Myrek Fowlkes

9

Marcus Woodyard

8

Karrell Goines

7

Pete Carter

2

ROOSEVELT  SCORERS

Player

Points

Chaun Miller

17

Prince Okoroh

15

Akil Charles

12

NieRonn Miles

6

Marcellus Gail

5

Malachi Alexander

2

Cameron Isreal

2

OTHER STATS

Team

Category

Patterson

Three-point field goals

Meekins 4, Carr 3

Roosevelt

Three-point field goals

Miller 3, Gail 1

Patterson

Total Fouls

18

Roosevelt

Total Fouls

19

Patterson

Rebounds

43 (Meekins 10)

Roosevelt

Rebounds

39 (Miles 8)