Few people are happier–or more confident–having their team play in an unfamiliar gym than Robeson coach Charles Redmond.
“I love my team on the road,” said Redmond, whose club’s road pedigree includes a two-point loss at King. “We’re a much better road team than home team. I want to play every game on the road.”
Robeson’s road show played to rave reviews again Thursday as the Raiders ousted defending state champion Young 79-70 at Simeon to secure a quarterfinal date with King on Tuesday in the Public League playoffs.
Ruben Perry led Robeson with 16 points and teammate Eric Crockwell was a force inside, scoring 12 points to go with 13 rebounds. Terrance Jones added 15 points for Robeson.
Young (11-13) held a 37-35 lead at halftime but the Raiders, fueled by a shift to a tight zone defense, opened the third with a 12-1 run to take the lead for good. A tip-in by Najeeb Echols (15 points) brought Young within four with a minute and a half to play before Robeson (18-12) put the game away with a 9-3 run. The Raiders knocked down 24 free throws in the second half.
“We played mostly man in the first half, then switched up and went to a zone,” Redmond said. “I have big guards who keep their hands in the passing lanes. We took the tempo away from them and got our offense going.”
Freshman Marcus White led Young with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Pat Rooney.
King 107, Austin 77: Imari Sawyer scored 30 points and had eight assists to lead No. 5 King (23-6). Leon Smith added 27 points and 16 rebounds in the rout.
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“The game was over in the third quarter,” Smith said. “When you take the heart out of the other team, that’s it.”
Chris Jones scored 15 to lead Austin (26-4).
Westinghouse 105, Hubbard 47: Top-ranked Westinghouse (29-0) used 38 points by David Bailey to knock out Hubbard (14-15) and cruise into Tuesday’s quarterfinals against Dunbar. Bailey scored 14 straight in a 16-2 run that put the Warriors up 32-15 with five minutes left in the half.
“I made a statement on Monday that we were going to force a tempo that nobody had ever seen before,” Westinghouse coach Chris Head said. “I think you saw that today. This may sound crazy, but there are still some faults in how we played. We didn’t play much defense at all. We’re not yet where we want to be.”
Lee Caldwell scored 11 for Hubbard.
Dunbar 73, Marshall 59: No. 6 Dunbar (23-7) outscored Marshall 17-7 in the second quarter to go up 36-22 at the half. Jason Straight led the Mighty Men with 17 points and Jeremy Hunter added 15. Jimmy Patton scored 14 for Marshall (15-12). Dunbar held Marshall’s top scorer, Orlando Burras, to nine points.
Julian 83, Steinmetz 75: Demario Eddins scored 13 of his 28 points in the third quarter as Julian rallied for the victory over Steinmetz (20-10). The 15th-ranked Jaguars (23-5) trailed 27-14 with seven minutes to go in the first half. Julian closed to 36-34 at the half and then outscored Steinmetz 23-17 in the third quarter to take control. Freshman Sean Dockery added 21 for Julian.
“All year we have worked hard to get to this spot,” Julian coach Loren Jackson said. “We came together. We didn’t fold. We had an opportunity to fold in that second quarter and didn’t.”
Lincoln Park 44, Morgan Park 39: No. 19 Lincoln Park played most of the fourth period without standout guard Aaron Carr, who had four fouls, but rallied from a 37-32 deficit to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals against Simeon.
The Lions (22-7) forced six straight turnovers and Carr (16 points), who re-entered the game with just under three minutes to play, hit a 5-foot shot with 2 minutes 35 seconds left to put his team ahead for good at 40-39. Romaine Hicks (13 points), who left the game earlier in the quarter with leg cramps, returned and iced the game with four straight free throws in the last 26 seconds.
“Aaron has played big for us all year,” Lincoln Park coach Cyrus McGinnis said. “Our defense stepped up with him out. I told them we’d have to gamble and trap as much as we could.”
Imonichie Akhibi led Morgan Park with 13 points.