Patterson senior point guard Dereck Oliver mostly kept the No. 1 Clippers ahead of Poly with good aim from the free throw line throughout Tuesday's Baltimore City Division I boys basketball game.
But when it came time to seal the victory, Oliver was at his savvy best.
After the Clippers' 13-point fourth quarter advantage was trimmed to one with under a minute to play, Oliver saw an opening to the basket he couldn't pass up. And then it was his pass — finding senior forward Demetrich Williams underneath — that finally helped give them breathing room against the host Engineers.
Williams scored the layup and was fouled, converting a three-point play that helped send Patterson to a gritty 60-53 win at Poly.
Oliver finished with a game-high 29 points — making 17 of 20 free throws — as Patterson improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in Baltimore City. Williams scored seven points and added 10 rebounds and fellow senior guard Gary Blackston added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Poly, which got a team-high 23 points from Marcel Thompson, fell to 7-5 and 1-2 in the league.
The Clippers thrived on grinding out a tough road win.
"It was just a good fight for us," Oliver said. "A lot of times we're going to have this when we go up against Edmondson and Lake [Clifton] at the end of the month — it's just fighting to come out with the win."
Tightly-contested with baskets tough to come by deep into the third quarter, the Clippers went on an 11-0 run that gave them a 42-30 lead with 6:41 left in the game. When Oliver hit two free throws, then a basket in transition followed by two free throws by Williams, the Clippers lead was its biggest at 48-35 with 4:31 to play.
But the Engineers didn't back down. When Thompson heated up — converting a three-point play and then nailing a 3-pointer with 1:50 to play — the Engineers found themselves within 52-49. With 51 seconds to play, Christian Chong Qui would have the Poly crowd in an uproar with a 3-pointer from the left corner to cut the lead to 54-53.
On the Clippers next possession, the ball was in Oliver's hands and order was restored with the drive and dish to Williams for the four-point lead.
"He was wide open and when the foul was called for the and-1, I was just happy he made the free throw to seal it," Oliver said. "We just fought through adversity every time, as usual, and came out with the win."
Patterson coach Harry Martin would have preferred a less dramatic ending, but was pleased with the result.
"We had Lake Clifton and Milford Mill at home, but this was our first true road test. So I was proud of them," he said. "We built the lead kind of methodically and then we gave it up under pressure and then we got it back, so it was a great win for us."