Class 4a Terry gets a second chance

Basketball team can win title that proved elusive in football.

Eugene Wright and five of his teammates on Rosenberg Terry’s basketball team came up short on the football field a few months ago. On Saturday, they’ll get a chance to go out as champions.

Wright scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds Thursday in a 46-33 victory over Arlington Heights in a Class 4A state semifinal at the Erwin Center. Rosenberg Terry will now face San Antonio Brennan or Dallas Kimball for a state championship, 14 weeks after the school’s football team was beaten by Manor in the third round of the 4A, Division II playoffs.

“We knew that this was our last shot to do something big and leave high school with history and a legacy,” said Wright, who rushed for 1,300 yards this fall but will shift to wide receiver next season at Stephen F. Austin.

Rosenberg Terry (309) scored the game’s first seven points, and the Rangers led 22-20 at halftime halftime. They built a halftime lead despite receiving only seven minutes of playing time from the foul-plagued Derrick Griffin, a 6-foot-7 forward who has signed to play football and basketball at the University of Miami.

The Rangers extended their lead to 32-27 by the end of the third quarter, but with 53 seconds to play in the period, Griffin picked up his fourth foul. He sat out half of the fourth quarter, but his teammates were able to keep the Yellow Jackets from getting closer than five points.

“I thought they did an amazing job,” Griffin said. “They were playing like I was in the game.”

Senior forward Billy White, the only Rosenberg Terry starter who was not on the school’s football team, led the Rangers with 13 points. The 5-9 Wright was Rosenberg Terry’s other double-digit scorer, and the Rangers’ secondshortest player led both teams in rebounds.

“He did a great job of blocking out,” Rosenberg Terry coach Michael Jackson said of Wright. “They went big a couple of times ... I knew he was strong enough to keep them out of the paint so that’s all I asked him to do and that’s what he did.”

Wright’s reaction to his 12 rebounds?

“I’ve very surprised,” he said.

Arlington Heights (2311) was led by center A’Shawn Robinson, a 66 senior who was booed after he walked off the court before the postgame medal ceremony. Robinson scored 17 points, but foul trouble limited the Alabama football recruit to two points in the second half.

“It hurt a little bit, but other guys have played lots of minutes this whole year so they could have stepped up as well,” Arlington Heights coach Jon Wagner said. “I give Terry a lot of credit. They have a good ball club and they did a good job on us.”