River Hill's redemption tour traveled to Reservoir on Tuesday evening.
And, behind game highs of 29 points and 13 rebounds from Charlie Thomas, the Hawks built a big lead in the first half and rode that the rest of the way to a 58-48 victory. It was the third straight win for River Hill (11-5, 14-5) over a team that it had lost to earlier this winter and the team's 13th victory out of 14 games overall.
"We've matured a lot as a team and there's no question that the kids remember these games," River Hill coach Matt Graves said. "Any time you can play a team again after losing the first time, bringing the kind of game that we've been playing, that's definitely exciting. The kids are motivated."
Thomas, who is now averaging 24 points a game this winter, was a man on a mission from the start against Reservoir (11-5, 12-7). The 6-foot-7 forward scored 16 of his team's 25 first-half points, including 12 during the Hawks' 17-0 run during the second quarter.
He scored in a variety of ways, including a dunk, a 3-pointer and four baskets in the paint during the opening half.
"Tonight, they kind of just fed me in the post and let me get my easy baskets — have them foul me and get easy lay-ups," Thomas said. "First quarter we came out with intensity and, man, we just played hard the whole time."
Graves said that was the game plan — ride Thomas from the onset.
"Our big emphasis was definitely to pound the ball to Charlie early," Graves said. "We worked on it for two days of practice and we believed that they were either going to have to double immediately or they would decide to single cover him, which is what they decided to do. From there, it was just Charlie cleaning up around the rim."
Reservoir trailed 25-15 at the half and was behind by as many as 18 points early in fourth quarter following an old-fashioned three-point play from Thomas.
But the Gators, behind some inspired late play from Seth Henry (21 points), never quit down the stretch. Henry, who also added 10 rebounds on the game, scored 11 of his team's 19 fourth-quarter points to get the Gators all the way back to within the final 10-point margin.
Other big games in the loss for Reservoir came from Andrew Phillips (10 points) and German Garcia (7).
On the other side, River Hill got strong supporting play from Marc DeSimone (10 points) and Gary Sandler (8). Ben Borucki also added eight rebounds.
With the team rolling along and the playoffs approaching, Graves says his guys are excited to get out there every day at this point.
"The kids want to play. Practices are very competitive, they are getting a lot out of it," he said. "But most of all, they're hungry. They feel like, especially with the way we started off the season, every game is a learning experience to get us better and get us closer to where we want to be for the playoffs in a couple weeks."
River Hill 58, Reservoir 48
RH (11-5, 14-5): Thomas 29, DeSimone 10, Sandler 8, Martin 7, Gabel 2. Borucki 2.
Re (11-5, 12-7): Henry 21, Phillips 10, Garcia 7, Mierzwa 5, J. Garcia 5.
Half: 25-15 RH.
Other scores:
Glenelg 61, Howard 58
Nick Oates ended up with 19 points, including five 3-pointers, on the way to reaching the 1,000-point milestone for his career. Other big games for the Gladiators in the win came from Daine Van de Wall (15 points) and Dom Napolitano (14).
Howard was led by George Greene's 15 points in the loss.
G (6-10, 8-11): Oates 19, Van de Wall 15, Napolitano 14, Conners 7, Hammert 4, Mills 2.
Ho (6-10, 8-11): Greene 15, Savage 13, Shuart 9, Noble 8, Okoye 6, Dawkins 5, O'Malley 2.
Half: 26-25 Ho.
Oakland Mills 67, Long Reach 60
Will Robinson Jr. went for 30 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Scorpions past the Lightning and avenge the team's loss to Long Reach earlier this winter.
OM (14-2, 16-3): Robinson Jr. 30, Kiely 15, Ndiaye 10, Hopkins 7, Aaron 4, Graves 1.
LR (7-9, 8-11): Duckett 12, Clark 10, Lamar 9, Avery 8, Brodnax 6, Carter 4, Stamatiades 4, Paul 3, Menusan 2, Briscoe 2.
Half: 32-28 OM.
Marriotts Ridge 58, Wilde Lake 54
MR (4-12, 5-14): Caffes 17, Speelman 15, Clipp 14, Whitacre 5, Koller 5, Dar 2.
WL (1-15, 3-16): Jordan 17, Ichrist 13, Cantwell 8, DeLaRosa 7, Morgan 6, Stubblefield 2, David 2, Bowie 2, Barnes 1.
Half: 31-23 MR.
Mt. Hebron 59, Hammond 39
MH (10-6, 13-6): A. Smith 20, M. Smith 14, Schroeder 6, Trapuzzano 6, Bryant 5, Madden 4, Maloney 2.
Ha (2-14, 3-16): Wilcher 10, L. Thomas 7, Nicholas 5, Ridgell 5, Wheatley 3, Allen 3, Johnson 2, Whong 2.