Lamar Raiders take pair over ERA

By By Tony Krausz/assistant sports editor
November 23, 2003
The Lamar School boys' and girls' basketball teams each used big third quarters Saturday afternoon to sweep the East Rankin Academy Patriots and Lady Patriots at the Lamar gym.
The Raiders (4-1) picked up a 58-48 win in a physical contest against the visiting Patriots, and the Lady Raiders (5-3) tallied 16 points in the third quarter en route to a 43-36 win over the Lady Patriots.
Lamar (girls) 43
East Rankin 36
After the two squads combined for just nine points in the opening quarter of play, Lamar and East Rankin fair little better on the offensive side of the floor in the second quarter.
The Lady Raiders closed out the final four minutes of the first half with an 8-4 run to take a 17-16 lead into the break.
Lamar opened the second half in much better fashion than it did the game outscoring East Rankin 16-8 to take a 33-24 advantage into the final quarter.
The Lady Patriots started to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter cutting the Lady Raiders' lead down to 37-35, with 3:25 to play.
East Rankin turned up the pressure on Lamar abandoning its zone defense from the first three quarters for man-to-man, and the visitors implemented a full-court press in the final minutes of the game.
The change in defensive philosophy forced Johnson to call a timeout with two minutes left in the contest to rework her team's game plan.
The coach's talked worked as Lamar outscored East Rankin 4-2 in the final two minutes to hold on for the win.
Lamar (boys) 58
East Rankin 48
The Raiders won a rough-and-tumble contest, in which the visiting team had one player ejected and was whistled for two technical fouls, over the Patriots.
The two teams combined to send 20 players to the foul-line in the last game of the afternoon.
Lamar took a slim 25-24 lead into the break, thanks to Raiders guard Taylor Dean sinking one of two free throws after a East Rankin player was called for a technical foul, with 12 seconds left in the half.
Raiders center Austin Roebuck carried most the offensive load for Lamar at the start of the second half to boost the home team's lead to 39-33 entering the fourth quarter.
Roebuck, who tallied a game-high 17 points, scored eight points in the opening four minutes of the third quarter, and Jay Thompson added four points to help give the Raiders a six-point lead after three quarters of play.
Matthew Fort, who finished the game with 11 points for Lamar, scored the last basket of the third quarter for the home team.
Lamar opened the final quarter scoring three points in the opening 45 minutes, with David Haggard hitting a lay up and Fort sinking one of two free throws, after the East Rankin coach was whistled for a technical.
Curtis Weldon led the Patriots offense with a game-high 25 points, and Stephen Buys added nine in the loss.
The two teams will meet against at East Rankin on Dec. 2.