Royal Oak Claims OT Victory in See-Saw Basketball Battle

Tuesday’s game against Rochester High School easily could have gotten out of hand early for the varsity boys basketball team.

At one point, the Ravens trailed by eight points and Rochester's junior guard Taylor Perry was shredding up the Royal Oak defense, outscoring the entire team in the first quarter.

Nonetheless, Royal Oak regrouped and held on through a see-saw battle in the second half to force overtime for its second straight game. In the extra session, the Ravens didn’t allow a single point, defeating Rochester 63-57 at Royal Oak High School on Tuesday night.

The loss marked the first of the season for Rochester in its conference slate.

“We were fortunate to win tonight because Rochester is an excellent club,” Royal Oak head coach Gary Sharpe said. “I feel very fortunate that we won. I’m really happy for our kids. We went into overtime, but had the resiliency to stay with our game plan and we were fortunate enough to win it at the end.”

Royal Oak had an 11-point lead with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. However, Rochester didn’t throw in the towel, scoring 13 points in a 1:37 span to force overtime.

In the extra session, the Ravens defense was the difference – holding the visiting Falcons scoreless in the overtime.

“This was a huge victory for us tonight,” said Royal Oak senior center David Hatchett. “It was really important for us to come out this week and get this ‘W.’ We were really trying to make this statement that we are one of the teams to beat in this league.”

Hatchett led the Ravens with 14 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter. Senior center Dave Wagner finished with 12 points and junior guard DeAndre Smith had 10.

“When we’ve been successful, it hasn’t been with someone going out and scoring 25 points,” Sharpe said. “When we’ve been successful, it’s been when we get three or four guys in doubles digits in points. That’s what we had tonight.”

For Rochester Hills (4-4, 3-1), Perry led the way with 20 points, 14 of which came in the first quarter. He capped off the opening frame with a vicious fast-break dunk that opened up a 17-12 lead for Rochester at the end of the first quarter. Perry was issued a technical foul for hanging on the rim, and because it was his second foul, he sat for the entire second quarter and the majority of the third.

Meanwhile, Royal Oak found itself in a 22-14 deficit early in the second quarter, but a big 9-0 run gave the Ravens its first lead of the game. Rochester went into the halftime break with a 31-27 lead.

Royal Oak made up ground in the third quarter and the two teams entered the final frame with the score deadlocked at 38-38.

The Ravens stayed hot early in the fourth quarter, going on a 15-4 run to take a commanding 11-point lead in a stretch that saw Rochester head coach John Pleasant receive a technical foul for arguing a call, which marked the team’s third technical foul of the night.

The Falcons went on a 10-2 run of its own in less than two minutes to get back in the game and force overtime with the score at 57-57.

“I give our kids a lot of credit,” Pleasant said. “We fought back. We were down 11 with not much time left, and they fought back.”

The overtime session was all Ravens. Royal Oak senior guard Terrell Nickerson was given the difficult task of guarding Perry in the overtime. He and his teammates were successful in keeping Perry and the Falcons off the board.

“He is a tough player to guard,” said Nickerson, who had three defensive rebounds in overtime. “We had to make a couple adjustments on him. But in the end, we were able to get him down.”

Neither team is a stranger to close games. Royal Oak lost its last game in overtime by one point to Bloomfield Hills Lahser, while Rochester defeated Oxford by a point in its last contest.

Royal Oak (3-5, 2-2) will look to keep the ball rolling when it travels to Oxford on Friday.

“The kids are learning, first of all, how hard they have to work to win, and if they do work hard, that very often they will be rewarded with a win,” Sharpe said. “It’s not all about winning or losing. But I’m really happy with the kids. I think we are really playing hard. I think we are starting to develop some poise and do the things that we need to do to be successful.”