Preps: Riverside rallies past Arrowhead in WBY Shootout.
Tigers overcome 16-point deficit
Mequon — Milwaukee Riverside needed a night like this.
The Tigers boys basketball team has high expectations this season, but the reality is that this is a team still trying to figure things out. Consider it the effect of losing one starter to prep school, another to transfer and another to injury.
On Tuesday, however, Riverside got big nights from Terrence Lewis and Carlos Curtis and just enough from the rest of a relatively inexperienced squad to score an 84-75 victory over Arrowhead at the Rick Majerus Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook Shootout at Concordia University.
Riverside, which is ranked second in the area by the Journal Sentinel, rallied from 16 points down to improve to 3-2. It was blown out by Indianapolis North on Friday in Indianapolis.
“Coming back from Indiana after getting blown out, that took a lot of pressure off us,” Lewis said. “We just had to get back into the process, work as a team, play more together instead of arguing with one another. That’s what we did today.”
Lewis, a 6-foot-6 wing signed to Iowa State, finished with 39 points, 27 in the second half. Curtis, a 6-3 junior guard, added 17 points, five during the final minute of the first half when the Tigers started their comeback.
Ninth-ranked Arrowhead, meanwhile, had its five-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 5-2. Senior guard Trevell Cunningham had 31 points for the Warhawks, 18 in the first half, and senior forward Ben Seefeld had 12.
“I thought we were focused and shared the ball well in the first half for the first 16 minutes,” Arrowhead coach Craig Haase said. “I actually thought the last 2 minutes the momentum swung and I don’t think we got that momentum back.”
Riverside trailed by as many as 16 points twice in the first half, but an 18-5 run that spanned the end of the first half and the first 3 minutes of the second cut Arrowhead’s lead to 43-42.
The Tigers got a threepointer and a three-point play from Lewis during that stretch as well as a three from sophomore guard James Burks. Curtis, whose three free throws at the end of the first half cut the deficit to 10 points, gave Riverside its first lead, 44-43, on a layup with 14 minutes to play.
There were five lead changes and five ties over the next 10 minutes, but in the final 4 minutes Lewis got hot and scored 12 straight points for Riverside. His back-to-back threes broke the final tie of the night and gave the Tigers a 70-64 lead with 4 minutes to play.
And his layup with 2:19 to go gave the Tigers a 7668 advantage.
The 39-point performance marked Lewis’ third 30-point game of the season and raised his average to 32.2 per game.
“Lewis is exceptional,” Haase said. “He is a really, really good player from anywhere on the floor. I didn’t think he played particularly well in the first half, but he certainly made up for it at the end of the game. You’ve got to give him credit. He’s that good.”
Long before Lewis heated up, Curtis hit five free throws in the final minute of the first half to cut the Arrowhead lead to 39-29, a 10-point deficit Riverside was fortunate to have.
The first half was a struggle for the Tigers.
Cunningham had a role in that with his 18 firsthalf points, including 2 threes. Arrowhead had 5 three-pointers in the half as Seefeld (9 points), Marko Matejic (5) and Tommy Durand (3) also hit from long range.
In the end, however, it wasn’t enough to hold off the Tigers, who should be further bolstered by the return of senior guard/forward Alondes Williams, who has been out with a broken wrist. Riverside coach Tyrone “Rock” Lewis said Williams will be back Jan. 5 against Milwaukee Bradley Tech.
“We’re just getting our team. Our chemistry is finally coming back together,” the coach said. “This non-conference schedule we put together helped out our team for the postseason and for our conference. We’ve got a pretty good conference.”