AIS Boys Surge to Six-Game Winning Streak

Atlanta International School is on a six-game winning streak after edging Fellowship Christian 41-40 Tuesday night.

Behind three-point ace Rogier ten-Lohuis' hot shooting, the Eagles have found success after a shaky start.

"He's a guy who's been on a roll, knocking some outside shots down," coach Willie Richardson said about ten-Lohuis, a junior forward. "He's made a few buzzer beaters for us."

In a big victory over Holy Innocents, ten-Lohuis grabbed a rebound with time running out, dribbled behind the three-point line, turned around and hit the shot to send the game into overtime. Then he hit a three-pointer at the start of overtime to spark the Eagles to a 64-52 win.

Earlier this year, ten-Lohuis hit the game-winning shot in a 59-57 victory at Galloway.  Their five-game winning streak includes a 67-47 home victory over Galloway.

AIS is led by junior Darius Scott, who averages 22 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots a game. Richardson said he looks for Scott to develop further next year into a McDonald's All-American caliber player. He's around 6-5. "We're looking for him to sprout a little bit more going into his senior year," Richardson said.

Along with ten-Lohuis and Scott, AIS has received strong play from senior point guard Akeil Cange and senior shooting guard Shakeem Grohmann, who's averaging 14 points a game. 

Richardson said the his team has limited practice time because of the academic demands on his players. Also, they have other interests and play other sports, he said. But he said the players are "buying into the team. I'm really, really proud." 

With AIS reaching a higher level, Richardson expressed optimism that his team will perform well Friday night, when state ranked Pace visits. The Knights won decisively in their first meeting this year.

"I'm hoping to give them a better challenge than what we did before," Richardson said. "The players have got to come to play and see what happens on any given night. Pace presses all over the place and puts up great numbers. It's going to be interesting."