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Wise's David Golladay, seen here warming up before the game, scored a game-high 27 points in the Pumas' Tuesday-night victory
By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager
So, what was your 2009 new year's resolution? Maybe it was to lose some weight, save some money, earn better grades or, better yet, if you were a member of the No. 9 Henry Wise Pumas boys' basketball team, how about a new year's resolution to start the year off with a conference victory?
As that may not be the true resolution for the Pumas, they indeed began the 2009 calendar year with a 58-52 conference victory over the hosting Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders Tuesday night.
Every player on the floor had the resolution to put the ball in the bucket, but no one player fulfilled that particular goal more than Wise's David Golladay.
Golladay scored a game-high 27 points while mixing his shooting touch from the outside with his ability to finish at the basket for an impressive showing on the night.
"It feels really good," Golladay admitted. "My teammates kept giving me the ball and they were looking for me, and they knew I was going to look for them too."
"He really stepped up tonight," Wise head coach O.J. Johnson said of Golladay. "We have been telling David to not just settle for the jump-shot ... and we told him to keep attacking and keep attacking."
Wise (7-1) earned a 24-21 halftime lead and stretched that lead to as much as seven points, 28-21, before Roosevelt flexed its offensive muscle by going on a 9-0 run to take the lead at 29-28 mid-way through.
The two teams exchanged leads 10 more times through the remaining minutes of the third and early parts of the fourth.
Golladay gave the Pumas the lead for good with a jumper that found the bottom of the net and put the Pumas up 49-48.
"We could not get a stop down the stretch and they made plays," Roosevelt head coach Brendan O'Connell said. "And David [Golladay] was tough, he made so many big buckets coming down the stretch and [Wise] just made plays in the fourth quarter."
Wise eventually would ice the game from the free throw line later as Roosevelt attempted one final push in the final moments of the contest.
Roosevelt (5-2) was powered in the third quarter by Lasannah Kromah as he scored 12 of his team-high 20 points in the period.
Francis Ashe was the only other Raider to finish in double digits with 15, respectively, on the night.
The win not only starts the calendar year off right for the Pumas, but helps take away the sting of a holiday tournament championship-game loss to Mount Vernon over the Christmas break.
"I thought it was really important, especially coming off of that loss," Johnson said of the win.
"I wanted to see how the young men on the team would follow up from that game," Johnson continued. "We came out and played great defense, especially in the fourth quarter [tonight]. One of the reasons we lost to Mount Vernon was because of a lack of defense in the fourth quarter."
tmccray@digitalsports.com
Henry Wise 58, Eleanor Roosevelt 52
Wise -- 10 14 11 23; Golladay 27, Wood 14, Boyd 9, Barfield 4, Thomas 2, Makell 2
Roosevelt -- 10 11 14 17; Kromah 20, Ashe 15, Okoroh 6, McNeal 5, Smith, Jr. 4, Miller 2
