Roane St. Raiders men’s basketball often finds a little bit of magic when they visit Chattanooga St. Early in Wednesday’s game it looked like that could happen again.
Roane jumped out to an early five-point lead, but the Tigers cut the lead to one on a four-point play at the 14:43 mark in the first, then took the lead, 15-14, with 11:35 remaining in the half and never looked back.
Chattanooga led 30-19 with 5:04 to play in the half. The Raiders cut the lead to three, 32-29, with 1:35 remaining. But the Tigers rattled off eight unanswered points to end the half with 40-29 lead.
By midway through the second frame, Chattanooga’s advantage increased to 25-points, 61-36. Then, the Raiders started chipping away.
Back-to-back scores from the field and the free throw line by sophomore guard Amauri Young, cut the Tigers’ lead to seven, with 2:33 to play in the contest.
Chattanooga lengthened their their cushion to ten points before Raiders freshman Sebastian Tidor connected with 1:57 remaining to cut the lead back to eight, 77-69.
It would be the last Raiders score of the evening.
Chattanooga added six more points in the closing 1:46 to earn an 83-69 win.
After the game, Raiders Head Coach Alan Holt stated, “I thought it was impressive that we were still able to be competitive and cut in to that big lead that they got.”
Holt added, “For us to have shot the ball as poorly as we did last night and still be able to stay with one of the top teams in our league speaks to our guys’ level of toughness.”
On the night, the Raiders were a dismal 21-71 (29.6-percent) from the field and 7-33 (21.2-percent) from three-point land. The Raiders were able to keep the game fairly close at the free throw line as they connected to 20 of 26 attempts (76.9-percent).
Individually, the Raiders were led by Devin Perry’s first double-double of the season. The sophomore point guard tallied 17-points and ten rebounds.
Freshman Harper Neal came off the bench and connected on four of eight three-point attempts to end the night with 16 points.
Freshman Sebastian Tidor was held below his 17-point average with only 13 and Amauri Young provided some more bench punch with 11 points.
The loss drops the Raiders to 4-3 on the season and 2-2 in conference.
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