South Lakes vs Riverdale Baptist

Recap

by Ashen Stuart

A new look Riverdale team faces off versus a South Lake team featuring a top 50 player in the country. In this Public School vs Private School battle, Riverdale stole the show winning 75-67.

 

Coming into this game people, including myself, underestimated South Lake and believed that there was no way they could put up a solid fight against Riverdale. But we were all very wrong, and South Lake turned this into a must-watch game. Jordan Scott was the go-to guy for South Lakes hitting easy catch-and-shoot baskets to begin the game and gave them the lead early. Sol Vita was also a very crafty player who was able to find driving lanes and finish over taller defenders, but the player that I enjoyed watching most in the first half was their point guard Brian Kennedy. This point guard is a true floor general he played with poise and timing and attacked when his lanes opened up. He racked up 7 assists in this match and would’ve had 10 if he didn’t sit out most of the second half with an injury. Riverdale looked rocky to start off but pieced it together before the half ended.

 

Riverdale came out slow and looked like they didn’t know what they were doing to begin the game. They were playing as a group of individuals instead of a team and showed signs of sloppiness and laziness on both sides of the ball, and they missed way too many passing windows leading to forced shots. However, they picked it up halfway through the first half and closed the gap between them and South Lakes. Jack Furman helped trailblaze the road for his team with his stroke behind the arc which forced the defense to worry about him and created more opportunities for his teammates. They were able to fight back against the aggressive South Lakes squad and were only down by three points going into the half, 43-40.

 

In the second half, South Lakes cooled off and lost a critical piece of the team in Brian Kennedy which opened a window for Riverdale to jump through. Jordan Scott continued his dominance and ended the game with 25 points, but missed some crucial shots late in the game which easily would’ve given his team a chance to win. Sol Vita also turned down in the second half and began to jack up threes ending the game shooting a mere 1-10. The whole South Lakes team was jacking shots, they went 9-39 on the half, 23%, which is terrible compared to their 45%, 18-40, performance in the first half. Late in the game the South Lake defense just fell apart and started handing Riverdale easy baskets. From lazy fouls to avoidable and-ones, they just looked like a whole different team and it cost them the game.

 

Riverdale came to play in the second half but it wasn’t the second half that impressed, it was more the end of the game that showed the difference between the two teams. When it came down to clutch time Riverdale turned up the heat and made it look too easy. Dominic Carr was feasting he was getting to the paint with ease and really putting pressure on South Lakes to retaliate. The defense was more active than ever and wasn’t allowing the shots they did in the first half, they cracked down on Jordan Scott late in the game denying him the ball and taking away their strongest offensive weapon. They earned 4 and-ones late in the game which flipped all of the momentum over to Riverdale and changed the entire atmosphere of the court. Riverdale finished the game looking like a completely different team and earned the respect of many of the viewers watching the game.

 

The Private vs Public showdown ended in favor of the private schools. South Lakes proved they have what it takes to be an elite team and Riverdale walks away victorious showing they are still the team to beat.