skip navigation

Flowers Holds Off Roosevelt

By Marcus Helton, 11/01/12, 12:00AM EDT

Share

GREENBELT – After building what appeared to be a comfortable 10-point lead entering the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game at Eleanor Roosevelt, the C.H. Flowers Jaguars saw the their lead erased to set the stage for an exciting final five minutes.

In the end, the Jaguars made enough plays to hang on, as junior guard Brandon Green made a pair of free throws with 6.5 seconds remaining to give his team a four-point lead en route to a 47-42 Prince George’s County 4A League victory.

“Everybody makes runs; that’s basketball for you,” Green said. “When we got back after the timeout, I just went to everybody, ‘Stay calm. This is their run; we’re going to make a run back.’ So, that was the main thing in the fourth quarter.”

Flowers junior guard Dontae Holloway scored 12 points to lead all scorers, while Darrett Gorham had 10 points.



“We didn’t get an opportunity to score a lot of points tonight,” Flowers coach Billy Lanier said. “I thought our half-court defense was a little bit better, and I thought we did a great job of rebounding the basketball for a team this size. D.J. Gorham did an excellent job on the boards for us, as well as Clint Robinson, and our guards.”

The Jaguars (6-3 overall, 6-1 PG 4A) led 13-7 after one quarter and 20-17 at halftime. Roosevelt rallied to take the lead in the third quarter, but Flowers regained control and extended its advantage to 34-24 heading into the final quarter.

The Raiders (7-3, 5-2) quickly whittled that deficit down, however. After a 3-pointer, two Malachi Alexander free throws, a steal and lay-in by senior guard B.J. Antoine and a steal and dunk by sophomore guard Tiwain Kendley, the Jaguars led 36-35 with two minutes to go in the game.

Trevor Evans hit a 3-pointer from the corner in front of his team’s bench to cut the lead to 44-42 with seven seconds remaining.

Green was fouled on the ensuing inbounds and went to the foul line with 6.5 seconds to go. His first shot fell through easily, but the second bounced around before going in.

“The first one I was like, ‘I’m cool,’” he said. “I had it coming out of the timeout, got focused and went to the free throw line and knocked the first one down. The second one felt like I rushed it a little bit, but I still managed to knock it down.”

The Raiders responded by throwing a court-length inbounds pass to Malachi Alexander, who grabbed the ball, raced back out behind the 3-point line and put up a shot. The attempt was short off the rim and ultimately corralled by Flowers’ David Barnes, who was fouled with 0.3 seconds remaining on the clock. He made one of two foul shots for the game’s final point.

“We’re making a bad habit of starting slow,” Roosevelt coach Brendan O’Connell said, “but I mean, we took the lead in the third quarter. That wasn’t the reason we lost. We turned the ball over too much tonight. We had our chances to get back in it, but you can’t make that many mistakes against a good team.”



Roosevelt senior guard Chaun Miller said that despite the setback, he feels good about his team’s chances to make another deep playoff run.

“The season, it’s still young,” he said. “We took a loss, it happens. We’ve got a lot of things to fix. I feel very confident in my teammates, because we always fix things, you know? We just got our point guard [senior Akil Charles] back from a broken elbow, and he’s rehabbing and he should be back in the lineup soon. So, I mean, I feel very confident with where my team stands. Tonight just wasn’t our night, and when we play this team again, we’re going to have to play better.”

C.H. FLOWERS
Dontae Holloway 12, Darret Gorham 10, Kofi Andoh 8, David Barnes 7, Brandon Green 6, Reggie Sidbury 5, Clint Robinson 1.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Trevor Evans 9, Tiwain Kendley 8, Malachi Alexander 7, B.J. Antoine 5, Chaun Miller 5, Jessie Ason 2, Arnaud Mulosa 2, Enouma Ebinum 1, Shawn Petty 1.
C.H. Flowers 13 7 14 13 – 47
E. Roosevelt 7 10 7 16 – 42
Total Fouls—CHF 16, ER 17. Fouled Out – ER (Miller).




Top: C.H. Flowers' Reggie Sidbury looks to the basket as Roosevelt's Josh Ntoko defends. Right: Flowers junior guard Brandon Green looks over the defense. - Photos by Marcus Helton, DMV Elite.

CLICK HERE FOR HIGHLIGHT VIDEO AND INTERVIEWS

Contact DMV Elite Editor-in-Chief Marcus Helton at mhelton@dmvelite.com or on Twitter. Also, check out DMV Elite on Facebook!