Boys Basketball: Eleanor Roosevelt 64, Bowie 60

***Interviews to follow***

By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

Eleanor Roosevelt basketball player Lasan Kromah ran down the court, gathered his steps, and then took off towards the rim.

As Kromah slammed down two points for the Raiders in the early moments of the second quarter, the same energy he used to send the ball through the basket reverberated through his teammates on the floor, on the bench, and even through Roosevelt head coach Brendan O'Connell.

The fourth-seeded Raiders used that spark of energy to erase a seven-point first-quarter deficit and eventually take the lead 25-20.

Roosevelt never trailed again en route to its 64-60 victory over the top-seeded Bowie Bulldogs and punched its ticket to the 4A South title game.

"We're confident in our abilities," O'Connell admitted. "Just because we were down, we didn't shy away from what we do."
 
The win not only earned a trip to the 4A South region championship game, but also avenged two regular-season losses to the Bulldogs.

"I thought we made more plays defensively tonight," O'Connell said. "Both of those first two games were close, but we just made more plays tonight."

Roosevelt held Bowie to nine second-quarter points while scoring 10 of the last 12 points in the quarter to head into the locker room with a 32-26 lead.

As the Bulldogs cut the lead to one point very late in the third quarter, guard play shined the brightest for the Raiders. Roosevelt guards Dominique McNeal and Francis Ashe combined to score the next 10 points for the Raiders in the late stages of the third, and into the fourth, and helped push the lead to 51-43 giving enough cushion for the eventual win.

"I was just trying to leave it all out on the floor," said McNeal who scored a game-high 18 points. "I tried to play with everything I had to get the [win]."

As the fourth quarter got underway, Ashe (13 points) converted on back-to-back lay-ups to up the lead to 45-40.

Upon entering the final period of play, Ashe had only thought, adding: "Stay poised, that's it."

The Raiders will now face Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. in the 4A South title game, Saturday night at 7 hosted at Wise.

"We are confident," O'Connell said. "We wanted to be playing well at the right time and hopefully we continue playing well at the right times."

Bowie's Trevor McDade also scored a game-high 18 points in the loss, including a basket in the fourth quarter that cut it to one-point heading into the fourth.

Bowie head coach Cedric Holbrook and the Bulldogs end the year at 20 wins and three losses overall.

E-mail: James A. McCray III

Eleanor Roosevelt 64, Bowie 60
Roosevelt   --   10   22   9   23; McNeal 18, Bostic 14, Ashe 13, Kromah 10, Smith 6, Okoroh 3

Bowie        --   17    9   14  20; McDade 18, Rodriguez 8, Jordan 7, Goldsmith 5, Carithers 5, Jacas 4, James 4, Castleberry 2, Butler 2, Dickson 2