Eleanor Roosevelt Basketball Team Defeats Rival Bowie

Thursday, January 11th, Eleanor Roosevelt won their county rivalry matchup against the Bowie Bulldogs.  Isaiah Gross lead the Raiders with 20 points. The game started a little slow due to poor shooting from both teams, but the Raiders gain a 3 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter (17-14). Throughout the second quarter, it was a very tight affair that ended with the Raiders leading by 6 at halftime (31-25). 

Although having a defensive performance that could have been better by letting the Bulldogs bring the scoreline to 43-43. A defensive performance that the Raiders clearly needed to capitalize on. That is exactly what Roosevelt did by controlling the court on offense and defense. The final score was 73-56. The Raiders played commanding defense by only allowing 15 points in the final quarter of the game.

Coach Brendan O’Connell attributes the success of the Eleanor Roosevelt Boys Basketball Team due to the group of players being “Talented players who work hard.” Defense is a big part of the game plan and Coach O’Connell made this apparent when saying “We have really been working on becoming a better defensive team – still need to keep improving our defense.”

One of the standout players in the game vs. Bowie was Senior, Jaden Faulkner scoring 18 points. Faulkner carries the same mentality as his coach which is that defense is key. “Coming into the game all we were thinking is defense defense, defense. Nothing else on stop is our motto.” Faulkner also described the Raiders goal of playing defense for the entire 32 minute contest.

The Raiders are ranked 28th in the state of Maryland and have a 4-0 record in the Region. There have however been 1 win (Bishop Loughlin), and 2 losses (DeMatha and Riverdale Baptist) to teams outside of the region bringing their overall record to 5-2 (7-2 as of 1/15/18).  ERHS next matchup is on the road against another county rival Wise Pumas leading number one in the 4A region.