Raptors, BA Eagles fail to soar in holiday basketball tourney action

By Marcus Stone, Staff Writer
mstone@williamsonherald.com

The Ravenwood Raptors fell Monday night in the semifinals of the Ensworth Holiday Shootout to the LaVergne Wolverines 54-53 at the hands of two late free throws by Julian Reese.

Ravenwood (8-5) held a 46-40 lead midway through the final quarter before Reese went off for 7 of his game-high 22 points.
The Raptors had a 1-point advantage with under a minute remaining before the Wolverines forced a turnover and fast break that led to the game winning free throws with 11 seconds on the clock.

Slightly undersized compared to their opponents, Ravenwood dominated the highly athletic LaVergne team early in the
game by jumping to a 24-14 lead in the second quarter.

LaVergne (8-1) clawed their way back into the contest and went ahead 27-26 just before the five-minute mark in the third quarter. It was the team’s first lead since going ahead 2-1 in the early moments.

There would be two ties and two lead changes before the end of the quarter with Ravenwood taking a 34-33 advantage into the final eight minutes of play. The Raptors did not trail again until Reese’s game-winning free throws.

Ravenwood’s backcourt did the majority of the team’s scoring with Evan Forhetz and Matt Richardson both scoring a team high 16 points.

Forhetz was the hero of his team’s opening-round game against Clarksville, hitting a game winning shot as time expired and Ravenwood defeated the Wildcats 63-61.

The Raptors recovered from the heartbreaking loss Tuesday night in the tournament’s third-place game, defeating Sycamore 56-54.

Clarksville 80, BA 77

With the opening-round loss, Clarksville (1-5) was forced into the consolation bracket where they were matched up against the Brentwood Academy Eagles (0-3).

The Wildcats outlasted the Eagles 80-77 in an overtime thriller thanks to a 30-point effort by Daijon Williams.

BA’s Weldon Garlington matched Williams’ score while Kwazel Bertrand added 27 points in a losing effort.  

Brentwood Academy would bounce back Tuesday in the seventh-place game, topping Signal Mountain 73-44 behind another solid effort by Garlington with 18 points.

 

Posted on: 12/24/2009