Rogers rolls over Scott

Rogers High School player Clemmye Owens, 12, drives inside against Scott High School player Rashad Lane, 14. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

In seeking the top seed for the upcoming City League boys basketball playoffs, the host Scott Bulldogs were in chase mood throughout most of their showdown with first-place Rogers Friday night, right down to the closing seconds.

But, the Bulldogs, who last led in the game late in the first quarter, ultimately never regained it as the Rams held on for a 77-72 victory before an energized sellout crowd of over 3,000 at the newly reopened Ben Williams Field House.

Everybody said the City League was dead, but look at what you saw tonight, Rogers coach Earl Morris said. The City League is not dead. This was enjoyable and good surroundings for everyone.

• Blue Streaks prevail: 3-pointer before half sparks Archbold over Delta

• Boys' basketball roundup: 2-10

• Girls' basketball roundup: 2-10

Scoreboard

PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to view images

The win earned Rogers (13-3, 9-1 CL) the top seed and a first-round bye for the six-team playoffs, which will determine the City champion.

It’s good to get the top seed, but we’ve still got a long ways to go, Morris said. There’s a possibility it could be us and Scott again over at Waite [in CL championship game]. This team has real high expectations, and this is just one step toward where we want to go.

Forward Tribune Dailey and point guard Tony Kynard led four Rogers juniors in double-figure scoring with 18 points each, followed by Clemmye Owens with 16 and DeVonte Pratt with 12. Rams senior Talon Floyd pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.

Scott (10-7, 7-3), the only team to beat Rogers in league play this season (78-70, Jan. 13 at Rogers), was paced by 19 points from Shaquille Allen, 17 points and 11 rebounds from Rashad Lane, and 10 rebounds from Marcus Gillmer.

I’m not demoralized at all by this game, Scott coach Chris Dames said falling short. If we achieve the goals that we’ve set for ourselves, then we’ll play them again more than likely.

We missed a lot of layups, and we were real weak with the ball. But, the way they fought at the end was good. It was a 13-point game and they could’ve hung their heads, and they fought back. We’ve still got a long road to go and we’re playing good basketball right now.

Things were back-and-forth in the early going with the lead changing hands seven times in the first quarter before Kynard’s driving layup put the Rams up for good at 13-12 with 1:30 left in the period. Kynard’s 3-pointer took Rogers to the second quarter up 20-14.

The Bulldogs fell behind by 10 on two occasions midway in the second quarter before getting back within 35-31 at halftime. Continuing the pattern, the Rams went back up by eight points twice in the third quarter before two free throws from Bulldog freshman guard Chris Darrington trimmed the deficit to 52-51 with 50 seconds left in that period.

But the next Rogers surge proved to be the clincher, a 10-0 run ignited by Dailey’s inside bucket to close the third quarter. Dailey and sophomore sub Alejandro Williams then added two field goals each to give the Rams a 62-51 edge with 6:28 remaining.

Rogers pushed its lead to as much as 14 points (66-52) on a Pratt transition layup with 4:35 to go, but Scott had one more rally left. Down 74-63 with just 1:20 to play, the Bulldogs scored nine straight points in 61 seconds, and got within 74-72 on two Dontonio Kynard free throws with 19 seconds remaining. But Tony Kynard sealed things by hitting 3-of-4 free throws from there.

That’s what we always do and we know we’ve got to start picking it up at the end of the game, Owens said. We’ve got to quit slacking when it comes to the fourth quarter.

We knew they wanted to beat us bad, so we were motivated and knew we had to play hard to get the win.

Rogers was 30-of-71 (42 percent) from the field, 13-of-21 from the foul line, and forced 27 turnovers while committing 19. Scott was 27-of-67 (40 percent) from the field, 15-of-23 at the line, and edged the Rams 44-43 in rebounding.

The two teams were similarly cold on 3-point shooting, with Scott going 3-of-20 beyond the arc, and Rogers 2-of-17.

CITY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS: The CL playoffs open next Friday at Start, but a coin flip will be needed to determine the Nos. 5 and 6 seeds between Waite and Woodward (both 1-9 in CL), who will match up against Nos. 3 and 4 seeds Bowsher and Start.

In the Feb. 21 semifinals at Waite, Rogers will play the winner of the first-round game involving Start, and Scott will face the winner of the first-round game involving Bowsher. The championship game is set for Feb. 24 at Waite.