It may have taken overtime to finish the job, but the Roanoke Catholic Celtics ultimately got the result they hoped for on Friday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against North Cross and snuck past 70-68. The victory was all the more spectacular given Roanoke Catholic's disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 293rd, while North Cross is ranked 130th).
Roanoke Catholic found their leader in underclassman Demarcus Brown, who scored 27 points along with seven rebounds. Brown hasn't dropped below 15points for three straight games. Marcus Pannell was another key contributor, scoring five points along with six assists and four steals.
Several Raiders players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players 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's win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 3-10. As for North Cross, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 8-7.
Roanoke Catholic will look to defend their home court on Monday against Radford at 7:00 p.m. North Cross on the road again on Tuesday and play against Stuart Hall at 6:30 p.m. on January 23rd. Stuart Hall knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past three contests -- so hopefully North Cross likes a good challenge.
