Lincoln spoils showcase for Aquille Carr, Patterson

TOWSON, Md. — Aquille Carr lit up the scoreboard for his hometown crowd when Patterson (Baltimore) took on Lincoln (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Saturday night.

But Lincoln's sophomore sensation Isaiah Whitehead willed his team to a 71-66 overtime win in a national showdown that capped the Under Armour I-95 High School Challenge. 

Whitehead scored 23 points in blue-collar style while the Patterson junior posted 36 in flashy fashion. Whitehead, who's being hotly recruited by Division I schools like Kentucky, Florida and Syracuse, equally impressed the folks who frequently come out to see Carr play. 

Patterson took a 60-59 lead — its first of the game since the second quarter — with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter after Carr sank two free throws. But Whitehead answered with a bucket just 7 seconds later to put the Railsplitters back up 61-60.

Lincoln point guard Dashawn Suber then added two free throws with 29 seconds remaining to give the Railsplitters a 63-60 lead. 

On Patterson's ensuing possession, Carr was hoping to find an open teammate open for a 3. The Clippers were forced to work the ball around the arc until it landed in forward Shakir Brown's hands on the right wing. 

Brown, who sat the majority of the contest after picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter, drained the 3 for his only points of the game with 8 seconds remaining. 

After Lincoln crossed half court for a chance at a game-winning shot, Carr stole the ball (his fourth of the fourth quarter) and heaved up a prayer a couple of seconds too soon. It landed out of bounds with 1.1 seconds remaining. The game ended up heading to overtime, with Lincoln outscoring Patterson 8-3 in the additional four minutes of play. 

"It was a hard win, to come down to Maryland and win in their guys' house," Lincoln coach Dwayne Morton said. 

Lincoln's offense worked the time of possession efficiently for a team that is used to a 35-second shot clock in New York. This game didn't use a shot clock, which allowed the Railsplitters to run some time off and keep the ball out of Carr's hands. 

Patterson coach Harry Martin wants his team to score in the 80s, which left him disappointed that the Clippers played into the tempo Lincoln was able to set. 

"We have to get back to playing our type of basketball," Martin said. "We didn't push the pace in the first half. We were playing their level and their pace."

The Railsplitters did a good job forcing Carr to make plays without much help from the frontcourt. Lincoln's defense doubled Carr while collapsing the paint to prevent much scoring from Patterson's bigs. 

Center Leonard Livingston and forwards Brown and Nymee Manns combined for just five points. 

"To me, that's unacceptable," Martin said. 

Whitehead conceded the Railsplitters made some mistakes that kept them from putting Patterson away in regulation. 

"We took some dumb shots, but we're kids," Whitehead said. "We're not going to be perfect. But we went into overtime and we got the win."

Lincoln was forced to adjust its offensive game plan early as the Clippers opened in a 2-3 zone. In New York, Lincoln doesn't see too many zone teams, which threw them off. Lincoln figured it out and began getting its offense rolling. 

"No team really played a zone on us all year," Whitehead said. "We had to adjust to it."

In the first half, Lincoln utilized various defenses to try and slow Carr. The Railsplitters doubled him and ran a triangle-and-two scheme to force tough shots. 

Down 8-4 in the first quarter, Carr drove into the lane and drew a foul. He hit one of his two free throws. A bucket from Lincoln's Travis Charles pushed its lead to 10-5 before Carr answered with a patented dribble-drive layup. 

The Clippers, who lost their first game of the season, were able to cut the lead to 18-16 by the end of the first quarter. The Railsplitters opened the lead to 24-19, aided with a 3-pointer from Whitehead at the 6:29 mark. 
 
Patterson cut the lead to 26-23 before Carr took matters in his own hands. He scored the remainder of Patterson's points in the period, which gave the Clippers their first lead of the game at 29-28. But another 3 from Whitehead and an easy bucket from guard Marquis Morton gave the Railsplitters a 33-29 advantage.

Whitehead said defending Carr was quite the challenge. Carr was able to draw a ton of contact and shoot 20 free throws — making 16 of them.

"He's a great attacker for a little guy," Whitehead said. "He has jumping ability. He can make contact and get and-1s. It was tough for our guards to guard him but we had to contain him in the overtime."

Lincoln will participate in the MaxPreps Holiday Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., following Christmas.

In the first game of the Under Armour I-95 High School Challenge, St. Frances Academy (Baltimore) defeated Quality Education Academy (Winston-Salem, N.C.), 65-44. The Panthers were led by junior guard Maurice White, who scored 25. Panthers guard Tevon Saddler also contributed 16 points in the win.