When Randallstown and Catonsville met in boys basketball last year, the Comets tried to run with the Rams and lost, 101-73. On Wednesday night, Catonsville made sure to set the tempo, but it couldn't control the outcome, falling to Randallstown, 54-46, at Catonsville High School.
And it was Randallstown (9-3) that slowed the game down once it got a lead, 35-32, late in the third quarter. The Rams extended it to 38-32 on a three-pointer by Brandon Brice (10 points) early in the fourth.
"That was the plan to get up four points and pull the ball out and take them out of their zone," Randallstown coach Kevin English said. "It kind of let us extend the lead."
Four free throws from Dwayne Banks and a pair from Newton Ndingwan helped Randallstown build the lead to 50-38 with 1:07 left.
Catonsville's Eric Sheppard (12 points, 4 assists) made two free throws with 54 seconds remaining and hit a three-pointer off a pass from Zach Caslin 10 seconds later to make it 50-43. A couple of free throws from Randallstown's Brice made it 52-43 with 29 seconds left, but Catonsville's Caslin made it a two-possession game with a three-pointer with 20 seconds remaining.
Those were the final points the Comets (8-7) would get.
Randallstown coach English knew his team would be challenged after he watched the Rams' junior varsity lose its first game of the season.
"I told our guys, 'You can't come out like that,' but you can't control their bodies so they came out a little lethargic and that's why I played a lot of the bench guys early," said English, whose squad fell behind, 9-0.
Sheppard made a three-pointer five seconds after the jump and Antwan Pearson (16 points, 14 rebounds) had a strong first quarter. Pearson scored only four points, but he blocked three shots and had two steals.
Jeff Sewell added five points and a three-pointer for Catonsville, but the Comets couldn't pull away because Randallstown's Jaiye Agbonavbare scored 11 points, including three three-pointers in the opening stanza and the Rams trailed only 16-14. Agbonavbare didn't score again the rest of the game.
Pearson scored six points and had four rebounds in the second quarter and Musa Wichhart had six rebounds, two steals and two points in the second quarter as Catonsville continued to control the tempo.
Three-pointers by Banks, Brice and Anthony Granger (11 points) helped Randallstown take a 27-26 lead into halftime, with Granger's coming with two seconds left.
"Last year's game was 101-73 so this year we just talked about handling the pressure and if we slow the tempo down a little bit, we would be in the game and I thought we did a great job in the first half doing that, holding them to 27 points," Catonsville coach Matt Fannon said.
Catonsville went cold in the third quarter (3-for-13) as Pearson scored all six points in the quarter and Wichhart was saddled with foul trouble. Randallstown capitalized inside with solid work from Trevor Atelefack (13 points, 6 rebounds) and the Rams took a 35-32 lead into the final quarter.
"That's one of the quicker teams we've seen this year," said Fannon, whose team struggled against the Rams' trapping pressure in the second half.
Pearson was also held to one shot in the fourth quarter.
"They were doing a pretty good job at defense considering they did play yesterday at Milford," Pearson said. "I give it to them. We kind of turned the ball over a little bit too much. You can't really do anything when you don't put it in the basket."
English was happy to escape with a victory after losing in the final minute to rival Milford Mill on Tuesday.
"It was an emotional game and the guys spent a lot of energy and I knew their legs were spent so we held the ball a little bit," English said. "We just kind of wanted to get out of here with a win. Catonsville has improved a lot from last year. The coach is doing an excellent job."
Catonsville's loss was its first league loss after four victories in its quest to play in the Baltimore County championship game.
Randallstown's only league loss came against Franklin.