The Ravens of St. Raymond’s thought they were an elite CHSAA squad. But then they walked into a packed Gauchos Gym Friday night and were handed a reality check by archrival Rice in a 75-63 loss.
“We think we’re good, but we’re not that good,” Daniel Dingle said. “There’s a lot of work we have to do. We’ve just got to be humble and keep working. We’re not that good when guys get up in us.”
The Ravens failed to match the Raiders intensity from the opening tip. Devaughn Reid raced in for a layup, had a steal and then made two free throws. Josh Gomez followed with a bucket inside and before the game was a minute old, St. Raymond’s (7-7, 2-1 ‘AA’) already was in a hole.
The Ravens spent the rest of the game playing catch-up and, which is especially difficult for a seven-man rotation in an up tempo game.
“We made our mistakes in spurts,” St. Raymond’s coach Oliver Antigua said. “Sometimes we got baskets on the press early on, sometimes we made bad decisions with the ball, but it was just the overall wearing down. I think we got fatigued, we got tired in the end.”
While junior standouts Dingle (17 points) and Kerwin Okoro (12 points) each scored in double figures, they never went off together. Dingle scored all but four of his points in the second half, while Okoro was limited to just two points in the second half.
“We had to box them out and we did that tonight,” said Reid, who scored a game-high 21 points. “They did score, but our bigs did a great job on them.”
Rice (8-4, 3-0) never trailed, but the Ravens did make runs, including an 8-0 spurt early in the third quarter to cut their deficit to 36-33.
But Melvin Johnson (18 points) nailed a deep 3-pointer, followed by another triple by Cincinnati-bound Jermaine Sanders (13 points) and a Reid layup.
A 3-point play by Larry Graves (16 points), brought the Ravens to within 46-40, but Dayshon Smith scored seven straight points to give the Raiders a 51-40 lead after three quarters.
“Their role players stepped up today and that’s why they’re a good team,” Antigua said. “When your superstar doesn’t play well and other guys can step up, that’s what you want as a coach. I give them credit for having guys like Reid and Melvin Johnson.”
While Dingle said some of the Ravens flaws were exposed against Rice, Antigua isn’t discouraged. There are still at least two more meetings with the Raiders on the horizon. In those games, he said, St. Ray’s needs to play a slower-paced game. Dingle said they need to be better conditioned.
“It’s a good game for the city to see because that’s our biggest rival and it’s good for the fans, but by no means who wins this game in January determines the final outcome,” Antigua said. “We can play better and I think they can play better.”