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With his team trailing visiting Charles H. Flowers by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter, Eleanor Roosevelt High School boys basketball coach Brendan O'Connell could no longer allow his players to sit back in a zone defense and watch the Jaguars pass the ball around the perimeter for 40 seconds or more on each possession.

After Roosevelt junior guard Trevor Evans hit a 3-pointer to narrow the Raiders' deficit to 36-29 with a little less than 4 minutes to play, Roosevelt applied serious pressure to the Flowers guards. Within a matter of minutes the Raiders had reduced the Jaguars' lead to a single point at 36-35 on a steal and breakaway dunk by Tiwain Kendley that brought the crowd noise to a crescendo.

But over the last 2 minutes of play, Flowers' David Barnes, Brandon Green, Darret Gorham and Kyle Jones-People combined to hit 11 of 14 foul shots to lift the Jaguars to a 47-42 victory in a Prince George's County 4A League game in Greenbelt. Flowers (6-3 overall, 6-1 in the league) kept Roosevelt's Chaun Miller in check and weathered the Raiders' defensive pressure to hand the Raiders (7-3, 5-2) their first league loss since a 71-67 setback at DuVal last month.

“When you play a good team like Flowers you can't wait that long to get started,” O'Connell said. “I thought their guards were a lot bigger and a lot tougher than our guards. They're just a really good defensive team. We still have a lot of work to do. We felt pretty good at halftime [down 20-17]. They hit three jumpers to start the game, but they didn't hit too many shots in the second quarter. We didn't make many shots in the third quarter and you can't wait that long to start playing when you're facing a good team like that.”

During the last four minutes of the contest, as the Raiders continued to chip away at his team's advantage and the crowd noise became much more vociferous, Flowers coach Billy Lanier became considerably more animated during each time out. But one thing he continued to stress to his players was they had to remain calm when they got to the foul line. Jones-People proceeded to hit all four of his free throws before Evans connected on another 3-pointer for Roosevelt to bring the Raiders within 44-42 with seven seconds remaining. But Green hit two foul shots with 6.5 seconds left to seal the win for Flowers.

“I thought we could have done a better job of taking care of the basketball in the last 4 minutes,” Lanier said. “We made some mistakes and had a few turnovers and they got back in it. But anytime you can beat the defending region champions on their home floor it's a nice win. It doesn't get any easier for us [Thursday] when we host Suitland because [Roddy] Peters is probably the best guard in the county.”

“I just knew I had to stay calm,” Green said of his last two free throws. “I made the first one and then I didn't take a good shot on the second one but it went in. It was a big win for us. The defense was the key. We didn't give up too many easy baskets.”

tblack@gazette.net

Flowers 47, Roosevelt 42

Flowers 13 7 14 13 — 47

Roosevelt 7 10 7 18 — 42

Flowers: David Barnes 7, Brandon Green 8, Kyle Jones-People 12, Darret Gorham 8, Kofi Andoh 8, Reggie Sidbury 4.

Roosevelt: Chaun Miller 4, Tiwain Kendley 11, Malachi Alexander 7, B.J. Antoine 6, Trevor Evans 9, Jesse Ason 5.