Howard’s Marquez Williams looks for an opening.
photo by M.A. Locke
The Howard Hustlin’ Tigers made a conscious decision to ditch their run-and-gun offense in order to enjoy some won-and-fun.
The Tigers entered Friday night’s classic showdown with cross-town rival Tyner with three straight District 6-AA losses in tow in which they had averaged 71 points a pop. And with Howard coach James Talley concerned with the lasting effect of a furious comeback that fell just short less than 24 hours earlier against Red Bank, the Tigers honored the start of Super Bowl weekend with a Tom Brady-worthy deflate gate.
Howard (18-6, 9-4) let the air out of its explosive offense and used a smoldering defense and another Telijah Snow rebound-fest to under ugly the 6-AA leaders from Tyner in a 41-36 grinder that proved to be a season-low point total for both squads.
“Red Bank came out and just jumped us last night and I had some concerns if that second-half comeback to get back in that game would carry over to tonight.
Honestly, I was worried it took too much out of us for tonight, but thankfully it was a rivalry game and the boys were able to get up for it,” said Talley, who has seen his guys lose six games by a total of 15 points on the year.
“We did it with defense and rebounding, and those are two things you have to want to do in order to them. (Tyner coach) E’Jay (Ward) is a great young coach and he is wise beyond his years, but we decided to play a chess match with them. I think it showed this team is a not only resilient, but versatile too. We can play run-and-gun, but we can do the other things too,” Talley said.
The Howard win not only snapped an 11-game losing streak on the court to the Rams dating back to the 2012 season, but it also puts some added pressure on Tyner which could have for all practical purposes clinched the regular-season crown with a win. Tyner (17-5, 10-2) now stands just one game in front of Brainerd at 8-3.The two will meet next Friday at Tyner in what will ultimately decide the title and top seed.
“Howard played really hard. They always do. They lost three really tough games. At the end of the day the games must be played and decided on the court. We have done a good job learning from our losses, so sometimes it’s not a bad thing if you learn from it. It’s a tough district to play in, and you better be ready every night,’ said Ward.
Howard avenged one its toughest losses of the year with the win. Earlier this year, the Rams led just 1-0 before trailing the entire game but canned a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the win on their home court. It is one of three one-point losses for Howard within the district.
“It did feel good to finally win one of these close ones,” said Howard guard Marquez Williams. “Tonight was a lot on me because I had to slow it down and keep it under control. We’ve had problems closing out games, but we closed it tonight.”
Sure enough the Tigers led from early and wound up building as much as a 13-point lead in the first half as both squads really struggled to find the bottom of the basket. Tyner made just one field goal in the second quarter and missed 17 of 21 shots in the first half. Howard wasn’t much better, missing 23 of 32 shots in the half, but again it was Snow who gave them second chance shots time and again with his uncanny rebounding prowess.
A night after pulling 25 boards and 18 offensive caroms against Red Bank, Snow hauled in 15 for the night and scored perhaps the biggest field goal of the game late in the game to help seal the win.
“After that monster game last night at Red Bank, I called him into my office and talked with him today and told him we had to have that from him every night. He is our anchor down there. He’s not tall, but he makes up for a lack of height with his heart. I didn’t sleep much last night, but I think I’ll get some better rest tonight,” Talley laughed.
Williams, the senior sparkplug for the Tigers, echoed Talley’s assessment.
“We shoot a lot of jumpers, and we make a lot of them, but having Telijah down there, knowing he is going to clean up a lot of our misses, makes it easier to pull the trigger without much of a thought,” said Williams of his big man.
The Rams trailed by 30-22 heading into the final quarter, but they had trailed by nine at that point in the first game, so there was little to no panic. Tyner’s Kobe Smith scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the final quarter (he did the same thing in the last meeting in a 31-point effort) and Tyner got it to within 34-30 at the 2:00 mark.
“Kobe is almost like family with most of these kids because his father (Anthony Smith) held the Howard 3-point record for a long time and his mother worked here. He killed us in the first game, but we did a better job tonight,” Talley said of the Tyner star, who is also the grandson of former Riverside and NBA star Anthony “Woosie” Roberts.
Snow wasn’t about to let his hard work both on guarding Smith and owning the backboards go to waste on this nigh though. After the Rams had gotten it to two possessions, Snow hauled in an errant 3-pointer and stuck it back in the hole, drawing a foul on the shot and finishing the old-fashioned three-point play to make it 37-30 with 1:50 left.
Williams and Demetrius Bowens added a pair of free throws each at the end to make it stand, and Howard was in a celebratory mood on Senior Night.
“I can’t say enough about these seniors, especially Williams and Dewayne Lowry. We had a lot of kids transfer out to other school zones, but those two guys stuck it out because they wanted to get us back. It’s a really good group of seniors,” Talley added.
Williams and Snow each had 11 points for Howard in the low-scoring affair and Smith had the 18 for Tyner as its only double figure scorer. Tyner missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts and was 14 of 45 from the floor on the night. Howard made two treys in the first quarter but finished just two of 17 behind the arch and was 16 of 56 from the field.
Tyner girls 47, Howard 17: The Lady Rams wasted little time asserting themselves, racing to a 30-11 halftime lead and then holding Howard to just one field goal in the second half. Tamyra Long led Tyner with 10 points while Kiana Ratliff added eight.
Girls Boxscore
Tyner 12 18 11 6 – 47
Howard 3 8 0 6 – 17
TYNER (47) – McKenzie 4, Ratliff 8, Espy, Cosley 5, Camp 7, Poole, McCutcheon 6, Carne's, Crumsley 4, Tamyra Long 10, Thomas 3, Kirk.
HOWARD (17) – Bautista 2, Garcia, Simmons 6, Ervin, Reed, Washington 2, Eppinger 4, Taylor, Caldwell 2, Calloway, Knox 1, Appling
3-point goals: Tyner 2 (McKenzie, Camp); Howard 0.
Boys Boxscore
Tyner 6 6 10 14 – 36
Howard 14 8 8 11 – 41
TYNER (36) – Kobe Smith 18, Grace 5, Bridgeman 2, Gresham 4, Hambrick 4, Dozier, Fisher, Melton 1, Halfacre, Gary.
HOWARD (41) – Marquez Williams 11, Lowry 4, Thorne 2, R. Snow 6, James 2, Knight, Bowens 5, Telijah Snow 11.
3-point goals: Tyner 0; Howard 2 (Williams, Bowens)
(Contact James Beach via email at 1134james@gmail.com or Twitter @beachnut1134