The North Cross Raiders fought the good fight in their overtime match against the Roanoke Catholic Celtics on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Celtics by a score of 70-68. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game last Thursday (60), North Cross still had to take the loss.
North Cross' defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Antonio Mack, who scored 28 points. That was a full 41.2% of North Cross' points, marking the 14th time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Jesiah Hines, who scored 23 points.
Even though they lost, North Cross smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Roanoke Catholic only pulled down seven offensive rebounds.
Roanoke Catholic found their leader in underclassman Demarcus Brown, who scored 27 points along with seven rebounds. Brown is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 15 or more in the last three games he's played. Marcus Pannell was another key contributor, scoring five points along with six assists and four steals.
North Cross' defeat ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 8-7. As for Roanoke Catholic, the victory makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 3-10.
North Cross will head out on the road to face off against Stuart Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Virginia (Stuart Hall is ranked 132nd, while North Cross is ranked 130th). As for Roanoke Catholic, they will be playing in front of their home fans against Radford at 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
