The offensive productions Friday night in the Jim Muscaro Gym came in contrasting styles.
Visiting Roanoke Catholic looked to bomb away from the perimeter. North Cross liked hitting from the free throw line.
The chatty stripe prevailed.
Hitting 35-of-44 free throws, including 20-of-21 in the first half, the Raiders held on to defeat cross-town private school rival Roanoke Catholic 80-68 to remain undefeated in VIC-Division II play.
Free throws were the deciding factor as North Cross, making an evening of driving to the hoop and drawing fouls, attempted 40 more tosses from the line than their guests, outscoring the Celtics by 24 points from the charity stripe.
Catholic, despite falling behind 25-10 after one quarter, hung around the rest of the night, hitting 9 bombs from behind-the-arc that sidetracked any designs by North Cross to pull away.
“That’s the nature of our kids,” Catholic head coach Leon Caldwell noted of falling behind in the early stages. “We’re getting better. We’ve got kids who can shoot, but North Cross is good and Ed Green (Raider head coach) is an excellent coach. I was proud of the way we kept coming back. It’s just hard to come back against a team that keeps making their free throws.”
The Celtics outscored North Cross 27-21 in the second quarter thanks in part to 6’5″ sophomore Ethan Tait draining three 3-pointers.
“Ethan had a big game,” Caldwell added of Tait, who finished with a team-high 15 points and five treys for the Celtics. “He missed the first half of the season and it’s good to have him back.”
North Cross led 61-49 after three quarters before the Celtics got to within seven, 66-59, with 4:54 left in the game. The Raiders then put the game away with a 8-0 run fueled by a pair of free throws from Keith Oddo and Matt Doughty sandwiched around a Celtic turnover, along with a Doughty breakaway layup. Catholic kept clawing and closed to 76-66 with 1:18 left, but it was too little, too late as North Cross played keep away down the stretch to secure the outcome.
“We were down to 7 players and knew Roanoke Catholic would come ready to play,” Green noted afterward. “Fortunately, we met their level of intensity. We got that early lead, but they got some dribble-drives that we didn’t contain. At the end they were pressing and we got some layups we needed to keep our margin.”
Bennett Holley led the North Cross scoring with a game-high 27 points. Oddo added 20 points, while Kennedy Nwambia poured in 20. Doughty finished with 13 points for the Raiders.
Seniors Tony Vassar and Ross Clark complimented Tait’s scoring for the Celtics, with 14 and 12 points, respectfully. Freshman Lucas Myers added 11 points for Roanoke Catholic.
– Bill Turner
