Boys Basketball: Laurel 53, Eleanor Roosevelt 51

By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

Before Romel Blackson could volunteer for the ball with 4.8 seconds left, Laurel Coach Antione Gaither stepped up for him. Although Blackson was held scoreless for the entire first half, Gaither didn’t hesitate.

“I think sometimes I believe in Romel more than Romel believes in Romel,” Gaither said.

Blackson didn’t let his coach down and in the process lifted Laurel to a huge 53-51 win over Eleanor Roosevelt. Blackson hit a floater at the buzzer after getting the ball with 4.8 seconds remaining, snapping Laurel’s two-game losing streak.

“I wanted I,” Blackson said. “I didn’t have such a great game but I knew I owed Coach so I had to go get a win. It just shows he has confidence in me.”

Laurel (8-4, 7-0) practiced the last-second play all week and Blackson connected consistently. The ball was inbounded to Blackson but the screen he needed was on the wrong side. Blackson drove past two defenders anyway.

Feeling the clock crunching down, Blackson floated a shot over an outreached Eleanor Roosevelt defender that rattled in the rim and fell.

“I didn’t have time to think,” Blackson said. “I just had to penetrate, do what I do best and get the shot off and it went in.”

Blackston crumpled into the back wall after hitting the shot and was immediately swarmed by his teammates, who rallied around him for a couple minutes. The celebration continued into the team’s locker room.

Laurel was coming off a pair of out-of-county losses at Morgan State University and had to come from behind to beat a very good Eleanor Roosevelt team that had suffered just two previous losses all season.

“It was a good feeling, just like winning regionals or counties,” said Laurel’s Kilian Azah, who played in his fourth game since a knee injury, but not at all in the first quarter because he did not meet team requirements set by a new coach, Coach Gaither explained.

“This one is a confidence booster," Azah continued. "We got down on ourselves and this right here can help us get our heads back up.”

Laurel was handcuffed throughout the first half by Eleanor Roosevelt’s zone defense. The Trojans did a solid job on defense as well as the two teams combined for just 18 points in the first quarter.

The Trojans notched just seven more points in the second quarter and trailed 21-15 at the half.

Azah got Laurel quickly back on track to start the second half. On the first play of the half, Trojans point guard Corey Wood tossed Azah an alley-oop that was thunderously slammed down. The game’s pace picked up, which played into Laurel’s hands.

“We started off kind of loafing around. The oop always gets the crowd into it, gets everybody playing hard, gets the intensity up, gets everyone clapping.”

Laurel took a 33-32 lead on a Wood three-pointer and then went up by four points just after on a three-pointer by forward Marcus Hebron, who scored a game-high 17 points. The Trojans outscored Eleanor Roosevelt, 25-15 in the third quarter.

Roosevelt charged back at the start of the fourth quarter behind the team’s leading scorer, Lasan Kromah (14 points). Kromah hit a pair of three-pointers to open the quarter, then, after a James Smith Jr. field goal, connected on another three-pointer to take a 49-42 lead.

Laurel’s comeback started with four minutes, 22 seconds remaining. Blackson connected on an and-one, Hebron made another layup, Jerrium Beale didn’t give up on the boards for a tough two points and Wood gave the Trojans a 51-49 lead with about a minute left.

Roosevelt’s Smith Jr. tied the game with a tip-in but gave Laurel 24.3 seconds to win the game. And as it turned out, Blackson would only need 4.8.

“I was just hoping Romel would pull it off,” Azah said. “I had trust in him and I’m sure my teammates did too.”

But did Blackson believe in himself?

“Oh yeah,” Blackson said. “I had confidence.”


Laurel 53, Eleanor Roosevelt 51
Laurel -       8    7   25  13  -  53
Roosevelt - 10  13  15  13  -  51

Laurel Scorers:
Hebron 17, Blackson 9, Wood 8, Beale 7, Agugua 6, Azah 6

Roosevelt Scorers:
Kromah 14, Ashe 12, Smith 8, McNeal 7, Okoroh 4, Johnson 3, Miller 3