Steal seals the deal
Curtis takes away pass on final possession
The smile said it all. If you wanted to gauge the emotions and excitement running through Carlos Curtis and the rest of the Milwaukee Riverside boys basketball team following their 67-65 victory over Milwaukee Washington on Friday night, all you needed to do was check out the sophomore guard’s grin.
Curtis’ steal of a cross-court pass on the game’s final possession sealed the victory at Washington in this showdown of City Conference heavyweights. You bet it felt good. “They threw the ball. It was in the air and I went and got it . . . ” Curtis said. “It’s a good feeling. The team is depending on you to bring the game home, bring the win. It’s a good feeling for the team to have that trust in you.”
Riverside, the top-ranked team in the Journal Sentinel area rankings, improved to 16-3 and 9-0 in the conference, a half-game ahead of Milwaukee Vincent (14-4, 8-0). Third-ranked Washington dipped to 14-5 and 8-1.
The contest was Washington’s first without senior point guard Te’Jon Lucas, who is out for the season with a broken leg. The Purgolders were up for the challenge without the Illinois recruit, however, leading most of the first half and rallying from a sevenpoint deficit in the second half to nearly get the win.
Riverside’s on-the-ball pressure — it forced 20 turnovers — and work on the boards to create second-chance opportunities helped it score the victory. The Tigers also hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final 2½ minutes, with senior guard Bobby Hambright getting 3 of 4 in the final 20 seconds.
Tigers junior forward Terrence Lewis finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three assists despite missing most of the final 10 minutes of the first half due to foul trouble. Curtis added 19 points, eight assists and seven steals.
“They came out and played hard. Those cats kept on fighting, kept on grinding,” Riverside coach Tyrone “Rock” Lewis said of his team. “And they jelled together at the right time.”
The Tigers have developed a reputation for their work cleaning the glass. It was that ability to hit the boards that gave them the lead in the second half. Three times in four possessions they scored points off second-chance opportunities. Lewis capped the stretch by swooping in from the perimeter to put back Hambright’s three-point miss and give Riverside a 5146 lead with 10:15 to play.
Two possessions later Curtis sank two free throws to push the lead to seven with 9:07 to go.
“Our intensity level was way up here,” Terrence Lewis said, raising his hand above his head. “In the first half we had intensity, but in the second half we brought more intensity to the game.”
Washington chipped away, though. Buckets by junior center Jalen StephenHolmes and senior guard Nakell Martin (18 points) cut the lead to five with 7:22 to go, and senior Shannon Sanford, who had 15 points, hit a three from the corner to make it 55-53 with 5:16 remaining.
Riverside pushed the lead back to six with 2 minutes left, but back-to-back baskets by senior reserve Daniel Hinkle, two free throws from freshman wing Deontay Long and a three off the glass by Martin made it a one-point game with 10 seconds to go.
That set the stage for Hambright, who sank the first of two from the line to make it 67-65.
Washington was left with 7 seconds to travel the full length of the court. Long took the inbound pass, nearly lost the handle just before half-court and then got trapped just past half court and tried the cross-court pass that Curtis stole.
Previously the ball would have been in Lucas’ hands.
“I commend those boys,” Purgolders coach Freddie Riley said of his team. “For them to put that aside — emotionally it got the best of them this week — and come out and compete the way they did and lay it on the line, it showed so much growth in this team.”