With a big matchup against Bowie looming on Thursday night, the ERHS boys’ basketball team overcame a slow start and defeated the Oxon Hill Clippers 77-61 on Tuesday.

    The Raiders played a sluggish first quarter, hampered by poor shooting and some early turnovers. Oxon Hill capitalized on this lethargic start, storming out of the gates with a 7-0 run to begin the game. Roosevelt chipped away at the Clippers lead, but at the end of the period Oxon Hill still held the advantage 11-13.

    “We knew Oxon Hill was going to be good,” said Head Coach Brendan O’Connell. “We weren’t panicked, we were just trying to play our game, force some turnovers, which we did, and I think that got us rolling finally.”

     ERHS came out firing in the second quarter, as junior guard Larry McCan drained a three-point shot to propel the Raiders into the lead. That shot was one of several timely threes by McCan, who put on one of his best performances of the season thus far.

    “I just came out and just played,” said McCan. “I knew that we needed energy off the bench, so I knew that I had to give our team some points. When one person isn’t going off, then someone else has to step up.”

    After taking the lead in the second quarter, the Raiders never looked back. ERHS took a 6-point lead into halftime, and dominated the second half, cruising to a 77-61 victory, and advancing to 3-1 on the season.

    The Raiders next game is a much-anticipated contest against the Bowie Bulldogs.

    “We’re coming out there and we just want to play hard,” commented McCan on Thursday’s matchup. “We want them coming in here feeling intimidated, and we want to make sure that they don’t ever want to play us again, we want to give them fear.”

    Coach O’Connell offered a much more tempered outlook on the Raiders’ game against Bowie.

    “Right now we’re just worried about us,” O’Connell said. “We know they’ll be good. We’ll try to get some stuff fixed tomorrow, watch some film, and hopefully we’ll be ready to go.”