Nottingham is experiencing some growing pains
HAMILTON >> Prior to Nottingham’s first-round ESCIT game with Rancocas Valley, coach Chris Raba felt his team had to shoot fairly well and hit its free throws to stay competitive.
After the Red Devils took a 71-51 decision, Raba decided they need to do a lot more than that.
“We have a lot of problems we have to work on — the whole game of basketball,” the coach said. “We don’t defend. We’ve got to keep games in the 40s because we can’t score. We’re giving up in the 60s and 70s, we’ll never win that way.”
These issues were expected, of course. Nottingham is a completely revamped team after winning the county and state titles last year so growing pains are going to be part of the mix. Raba can accept that to a certain extent.
But when it comes to defense, he doesn’t want to hear about youth or inexperience.
Asked if his team gave effort, Raba said, “Not when you give up 71 points. They may have had between six and 12 points where nobody was even guarding anybody.”
They did indeed. Paced by Damilola Mosaku’s 25 points RV was able to penetrate at will, find open looks from the perimeter and get plenty of lay-ups. Mosaku was nearly unstoppable, shooting 10-for13 and scoring from everywhere. Javontae Jones added 19 points and eight rebounds for the Devils (3-1) while Kyle Lundy had 11 points with some nifty moves to the rim.
“We couldn’t guard any of their guys,” Raba said. “None of our guys could guard any of theirs. I think defense is all heart. I don’t think it was a difficult match-up. We just didn’t defend.”
RV opened its biggest lead of the first half at 24-13 before Nottingham kicked up a fuss. Behind Martique Perry, Josh Morrison and Bandon Raba the Northstars cut the deficit to 29-27 before Rancocas scored four straight for a 33-27 halftime lead.
Then came what Raba felt was the key point of the game, when the Devils scored the first five of the second half en route to an 11-3 run to break it open for good.
“We had a run, but it wasn’t enough,” Raba said. “We talked about the beginning of the third quarter that we had to have a strong first three or four possessions, and we didn’t. We didn’t get a shot off for the first two minutes and they came out and scored five straight points.”
Brandon Raba had 12 for the Northstars while Perry had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“Martique played hard,” Raba said. “When he gets the rebounds he’s gotta finish on those lay-ups. But his effort was there. He gave a good effort.”
He also finished most of the time, shooting a solid 7-for-10 while helping the Stars stay competitive on the boards.
Nottingham will meet Conwell Egan in the 3 p.m. consolation game, while Rancocas Valley meets Constitution in the 6 p.m. championship final. Constitution beat Egan, 79-60.
RANCOCAS VALLEY (71)
Brown 3-0-7, Lundy 4-3-11, Washington 3-3-9, Jones 8-2-19, Mosaku 10-2-25, Blango 0-0-0, Mohan 0-0-0. Totals 28-10-71.
NOTTINGHAM (51)
Williams 3-0-8, Raba 4-3-12, Perry 7-2-16, Morrison 3-0-7, Jenkins 1-0-3, Williams 1-0-2, Brown 0-0-0, Douragh 1-0-3. Totals 20-5-51.
Rancocas Valley (3-1) 19 14 24 14 — 71 Nottingham (1-3) 10171410—51 3-point goals: Brown, Jones, Mosaku 3, Williams 2, Raba, Morrison, Jenkins, Douragh.
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