In a hotly anticipated matchup between the two crosstown rivals, the Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders defeated the Duval Tigers 63-51 on Thursday (January 16) night. The Raiders victory came in convincing fashion in front of a raucous home crowd.

    The visiting Tigers, who made the short bus trip down route 193 to face the second place ERHS squad, came into the contest as heavy underdogs, having slipped below .500 on the season. Even so, the Raiders were well aware that Duval was not to be taken lightly.

    “We come out every game with the same intensity,” said Roosevelt senior guard Andre Fox, who had 23 points on the night. “But we know this is a rival, so we gotta win. We feel like we have to win every rivalry game. It’s gonna be a big crowd, so we just try to pull it off and get the W.”

    Roosevelt quickly seized momentum in the game, hitting several jump shots in the early going to amass a 15-8 lead on the Tigers at the conclusion of the first quarter. It was more of the same in the second quarter as the Raiders, powered by strong defense and ball protection, went into the half with a 9-point advantage.

    Duval would not go away though, and, led by Bruce Lane and Edward Polite, stormed out of the gates in the second half with a 14-5 run to tie the game at 35 with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter. But that was as close as Duval would get, as Fox hit a three-pointer on the next Roosevelt possession and the Raiders never looked back, pushing their lead back to 10 by the end of the third quarter.

    “I thought they played hard throughout,” commented Roosevelt Head Coach Brendan O’Connell. “And we did a good job when they went on a run coming right back.”

    The Raiders put up another 13 points in the final period to seal the victory, paced by Ishmail Jabbie’s 6 points in the quarter. The win pushed Roosevelt to double-digit wins on the season at 10-2.

    “I think we played very well,” said Andre Fox. “We played as a team, we played hard, and just fought.”