After falling short in a couple close games to start the season, Long Reach flipped the script against River Hill in its home opener Friday night.
The Lightning scored the game's final 10 points, including eight from the foul line, to break open a tie game and pull away for a 54-44 victory. It was the first win of the season for Long Reach (1-2, 1-3) and second consecutive loss for River Hill (1-2, 1-2).
"I think it definitely helped already having been in some of those tight situations this season and knowing that we had to tweak some things in order to finish strong tonight," said Long Reach coach Al Moraz Jr., whose team has already lost two overtime games this winter. "The free throws were huge. We had missed some tough ones on the road Monday night (against High Point), so I was proud of the kids for stepping up and knocking them down when we needed to."
The Lightning ended up scoring exactly half their points from the line. Terrell Lamar, who finished with a team-high 15 points, said it's something the team stresses in practice.
"We do free throws every day in practice, like we do 20 everyday continuously, just so you can make free throws in the game in the clutch," Lamar said.
The game was low-scoring and back-and-forth most of the way. River Hill, which was led by Charlie Thomas' 19 points, had an early advantage at 11-10 in the opening minutes of the second quarter. But Long Reach countered with a 7-0 spurt to grab the lead and ended up going into the half up 19-15.
River Hill made its push in the third quarter, getting a couple big threes from Marc DeSimone on the way to grabbing a 33-32 cushion entering the final period.
From there, it was nip and tuck until the final three minutes. A put-back lay-up by Dylan Mitchell tied the score at 42-42 with 2:41 left, but that turned out to be the last points of the night for the Hawks.
Long Reach generated some big defensive stops and converted at the line to win going away.
Kevin Duckett was particularly big late, as the Lightning guard scored 10 of his 13 points in the final quarter. Other strong efforts on the night came from Long Reach's Ron Carter (9 points) and David Clark (9).
"A win does wonders for everyone involved. It keeps the kids invested and just encourages them to keep battling," Moraz said. "It's been a long week, so we needed something like this."
On the other side, River Hill coach Matt Graves said it was a familiar feeling to the loss against Mt. Hebron on Wednesday, where the team also struggled down the stretch. He's hoping these lessons make the team better come February.
"We have to stay positive and understand we are learning on the fly. We have two seniors who have put in four years of varsity experience, sprinkled in with some newcomers," Graves said. "We have to learn from this and move on and the positive is that it's early in the season. We have time to get better."
River Hill returns to action on Wednesday against Oakland Mills on the road, while Long Reach travels to Hammond.
Long Reach 54, River Hill 44
LR (1-2, 1-3): Lamar 15, Duckett 13, Carter 9, Clark 9, Brodnax 3, Stamatiades 3, Menusan 2.
RH (1-2, 1-2): Thomas 19, Mitchell 9, DiSimone 6, Martin 4, Sandler 4, Borucki 2.
Half: 19-15 LR.
Other scores:
Mt. Hebron 55, Atholton 48
Building on the momentum from its comeback victory over River Hill on Wednesday, Mt. Hebron put together a more complete effort from start to finish on Friday to earn a 55-48 victory on the road against Atholton.
The Vikings jumped out to a 22-17 lead at the half and never trailed the rest of the way. Aaren Smith's 21 points led the way against an Atholton team that came into the game undefeated. Other big games for the Vikings came from Josh Bryant (11 points ) and Connor Maloney (8).
In the losing effort, the Raiders were led by Brandon Willis (12 points) and Cole Mason (11).
Mt. Hebron 55, Atholton 48
MH (2-1, 2-1): A. Smith 21, Bryant 11, Maloney 8, M. Smith 5, Linsenmeyer 5, Madden 4, Scroeder 1.
A (2-1, 3-1): Willis 12, Mason 11, Kelly 6, James 6, Carter 5, Waterworth 3, Kwong 3, Rodgers 2.
Half: 22-17 MH.
Centennial 52, Reservoir 35
Tom Brown registered a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Isaiah White added 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocks, to lead the Eagles to the victory over the Gators.
C (3-0, 4-0): Brown 16, I. White 14, Strothers 8, Clemens 7, An 4, Wilson 3.
Re (2-1, 3-1): Henry 10, Obering 6, G. Garcia 6, Mierzwa 5, J. Garcia 4, Phillips 4.
Half: 22-16 C.
Oakland Mills 78, Glenelg 65
OM (2-0, 2-0): Robinson 27, Williams-Day 21, Stanfield 12, Kiely 11, Hopkins 4, Aaron 2, Campbell 1.
G (1-2, 1-2): Oates 30, Hammert 14, Napolitano 8, Richardson 4, Heigh 3, Mills 2, Wade 2, Bowman 1, Monroe 1.
Half: 45-32 OM.
Marriotts Ridge 54, Hammond 46
MR (2-1, 3-1): Caffes 20, Speelman 18, Clipp 11, Skogmo 2, Morath 2, Talentino 1.
Ha (0-2, 1-2): Nicholas 11, Johnson 10, Ridgell 9, Wilcher 8, L. Thomas 6, J. Thomas 2.
Half: 23-20 MR.
Howard 60, Wilde Lake 52
Ho: Green 26, Shuart 16, Okoye 5, Savage 5, O'Malley 3, Dargan 2, Robinson 2, Delattiboudere 1.
WL: Barnes 14, Ichrist 10, Morgan 9, De La Rosa 7, Samuels 5, Jordan 5, Cantwell 2,
Half: 27-22 WL.
Severn 59, Chapelgate 54
S: Yearby 18, Butler 15, Owens 13, Bailey 8, Patterson 3, Thornton 2.
CCA (2-1, 4-5): Frierson 24, Grandy 11, Mitchell 9, Ball 8, Madden 2,
Half: 24-21 S.