The Lake Clifton boys basketball team relentlessly attacked the basket, hit the boards hard, and made sure nothing came easy for visiting Patterson on offense in Friday's Baltimore City Division I showdown.
It was a carefully designed game plan that was efficiently executed, lifting the No. 5 Lakers to a 58-54 win over the No. 2 Clippers.
The Lakers (13-2, 6-2) relied on a balanced offensive performance — Rashad Hawkins and Joshua Parks both finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds — to offset a 33-point performance from Patterson senior guard Dereck Oliver.
Following a 55-46 loss at Patterson in the teams' first meeting on Dec. 19, Lake Clifton coach Herman "Tree" Harried said the Clippers played tougher than his Lakers. That didn't happen on Friday.
"We played today. We battled and we defended and that was the key," Harried said. "We didn't turn the ball over and even when they made runs at us, we never lost our composure and we stayed with what we needed to do to win the game."
In the first meeting, the Lakers were content to shoot from the outside and when they missed, the long rebounds led to easy baskets at the other end for the Clippers (11-3, 5-2). On Friday, Lake Clifton made an assertive effort to get to the basket while keeping Patterson away.
In building a 18-6 lead by the midway point of the second quarter, the Lakers scored six inside baskets, including four on follows.
"I just wanted to get into the offensive flow, listen to coach and just try to help my team as best as I could," said Hawkins, who scored on three put-backs in the first quarter to set the game's tone. "I knew we had to push out of the game because last game we started off slow, so we needed to come out fast."
With the Lakers' zone defense clogging the middle, the Clippers got back in the game by making 3-pointers. Oliver made two and Earl Ross made another late in the second quarter to close the gap to 24-19 at halftime.
With the Clippers trailing 43-34 going into the fourth quarter, Oliver tried to take over the game. He scored 14 points — including consecutive 3-pointers that cut the lead to 51-49 with 1:46 to play — but the Lakers answered, as they did throughout the half, when Derrick Green scored inside after a nifty interior pass from Hawkins to make it 53-49.
With 28 seconds left and the Lakers leading, 57-51, the game was delayed after punches were thrown in the stands. Order was quickly restored, but the game was delayed for 20 minutes while the gym was largely cleared.
Oliver then made his fourth-3 pointer of the quarter to cut the lead to 57-54 with 18 seconds left before Hawkins made one of two free throws to close out the scoring.
"We kept battling and I told them we just needed the one run to put us over and it never came," Patterson coach Harry Martin said. "Give them credit — they came out with a good game plan and they out-produced us tonight."