Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Eleanor Roosevelt senior point guard Akil Charles hopes to make his season debut this week.
GREENBELT – When Eleanor Roosevelt starting point guard Akil Charles went down with a broken left elbow in November, it threatened to ruin his senior season and hamper the Raiders’ chance at another state tournament trip. But Charles got the cast off on Monday, and is aiming to make his season debut on Friday when Roosevelt hosts Bladensburg. The injury may even end up benefitting Charles and the Raiders in the long run. “It got me better,” the left-handed Charles said after practice last Thursday. “I can shoot with my right hand now, so I’ll be able to do it with both hands when I get back. And it made me see the floor better.” In Charles’ absence, 6-4 senior guard Chaun Miller has handled the point, with senior B.J. Antoine, junior …
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The Raiders will face a test Tuesday and Wednesday against Springbrook and Magruder in the Springbrook Holiday Tournament.
The Eleanor Roosevelt High School boys basketball team has high expectations for the 2011-2012 campaign. The Raiders boast one of the tallest lineups in Prince George’s County and feature talented senior guard and four-year starter Chaun Miller. The 6-foot-4 Miller has replaced the graduated Prince Okoroh as the Raiders’ primary offensive weapon and holds a Division I scholarship offer from Mount Saint Mary’s. “He’s a shooter,” said Eleanor Roosevelt head coach Brendan O’Connell. “He’s a scorer. He’s a great leader [and] he’ll do anything we need.” When Akil Charles went down with a broken elbow in a preseason scrimmage, Miller stepped in at point guard and has performed admirably ever since. “That was a little bit of a blow to us early,” …
Monday, December 19, 2011
Raiders junior forward Malachi Alexander is one of the County's rising young stars.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Malachi Alexander hasn’t played a full season of varsity basketball yet, but he’s already done enough to earn high praise from his coach. “He’s probably one of the top juniors around,” Raiders coach Brendan O’Connell said last week. “He’s got Division I interest, and he’s also a great kid.” Indeed, the 6-foot-6, 195-pound forward has emerged as one of the top young players in Prince George’s County despite his relative inexperience on the varsity level. “That makes me nervous, because that’s a lot of expectations from him,” Alexander said of O’Connell’s comments. “But I know I can do it. It just feels good that he believes in me, so I’ve just got to prove that I can be a Division I player.” Alexander played on the …
Friday, July 29, 2011
Eleanor Roosevelt graduate and incoming Howard University freshman Prince Okoroh has balanced his athletic accomplishments with an impressive academic career.
Prince Okoroh’s talent on the basketball court gained the former Eleanor Roosevelt High School standout an athletic scholarship to Howard University. It’s his dedication to performing well in the classroom, though, that may be even more impressive. You didn't have to worry about eligibility stuff with Prince, Roosevelt coach Brendan O’Connell said. “It’s weird, because, like, in the offseason and stuff, he would miss practice or miss a workout or miss a running session. But it’s because he was going to take a college class at Johns Hopkins or something like that. So how can I get mad at him, you know?” Okoroh — who was awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship at Roosevelt — took part in the 2011 World Scholar-Athlete Games in the Greater …
Friday, January 21, 2011
Roosevelt fought back from a 15-point deficit on Thursday.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders traveled to Bowie on Thursday to play a snow-delayed game originally scheduled for last week. The Raiders (9-3) came into the contest riding a six-game winning streak, while the Bulldogs (5-7) had won three in a row of their own. Although the game looked bleak for the Raiders over the first 10 minutes, their accurate shooting and lack of turnovers over the final three quarters allowed them to come back from down 15 to win 53-46. Worst of the night: Roosevelt missed 14 of its first 15 shots on its way to an 18-2 second-quarter deficit. The Raiders also turned the ball over ten times in the first quarter alone. Best of the night: In contrast to the game’s opening minutes, the Raiders started the fourth quarter …
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Raiders were blanked in the third quarter, but made a strong push to end the game.
On a night when points were hard to come by, the Eleanor Roosevelt High School basketball team benefitted from a miss that bounced right to the perfect spot. Senior guard Cameron Israel corralled a Chaun Miller miss and found a wide-open Miller under the basket for the go-ahead lay-up with 51 seconds remaining as the Raiders escaped with a 38-37 victory over Parkdale on Friday. “I was just in the zone,” Israel said. “I saw Chaun miss the shot, and I went to get the rebound just so we could have a second opportunity at something. NieRonn [Miles] tipped it up, and I just happened to get it and saw Chaun and just dropped it off.” Miller scored a game-high 20 points for Roosevelt, which improved to 8-3 overall and 6-1 against 4A opponents. His…
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Roosevelt took care of the Clippers with ease on Friday.
There was something special about the first quarter this week for the Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders. They shut out Northwestern 16-0 in their win on Tuesday, and Friday’s opening period against Oxon Hill proved just as fruitful, as the Raiders pulled ahead 25-7 after eight minutes. “It’s just unselfish basketball. We’re finding the open man and he’s taking the time to shoot and score,” said forward Hakeem Allonce. In Friday’s first quarter, the Raiders (7-3) shot 10/16 from the floor, including four made three pointers. While their pace slowed over the final three quarters, Roosevelt still pulled out the easy 72-52 victory over the Clippers (0-6). For the game, Roosevelt shot 49.1 percent (28/57) from the field, which is by far their best mark…
Friday, January 7, 2011
Roosevelt point guard Jamal Sims has committed to play basketball in the Ivy League next year, but has injuries to overcome and a twelfth grade year to complete first.
Of all the senior talent on the Eleanor Roosevelt boys basketball team this year, it was point guard Jamal Sims who was the first to commit to a college program, and he sure set the bar high. Next fall Sims will take his talents 200 miles north, where he will study and play basketball at Columbia University. His recruitment process was fairly brisk, transpiring entirely in the off-season. After being invited to the school’s summer prospect camp by Assistant Basketball Coach Michael Murphy, it was the connection Sims felt to the coaching staff and current roster at Columbia that made his decision simple. “I met [Assistant Coach Carlin] Hartman there and he was the one that really recruited me,” Sims said. “I felt like we connected because …
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Raiders' Coach talks to Matt Zenitz about the season, his roster, and how things are going so far.
Eleanor Roosevelt basketball coach Brendan O'Connell recently spoke with Patch's Matt Zenitz on Fox 1370 AM in Baltimore. Zenitz and the station were kind enough to share the audio of that interview with us. Take a listen below. To keep up with local sports, visit www.twitter.com/patchsportsmd.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Okoroh is garnering plenty of Division-I interest thanks to his play on the court.
It didn't take Eleanor Roosevelt Coach Brendan O'Connell long to recognize Prince Okoroh's upside. Even while he refined his offensive game early in his career, the versatile Okoroh was a force for the Raiders both defensively and on the boards. Now that he's improved on the offensive end as well, the 6-foot-5 Okoroh, primarily a forward, has not only established himself as one of the better players in the area, but also as a legitimate NCAA Division-I prospect. The senior has received offers from Brown, Columbia, Howard, UMBC and the Citadel and has also garnered interest from schools like Fordham, among several others. "It was early that we knew we had something special," O'Connell said. "He's always been a kid that has done whatever we …
