In high school basketball playoffs, anything could, or can happen. The Chopticon Braves jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, and led the entire first quarter. The Leonardtown Raiders pulled within a point on a monstrous one handed jam by senior Shawan Stone with 12 seconds left in the quarter. However, on the ensuing possession, Chopticon guard Albert Davis rushed the length of the court, and threw up a falling away three on the wing. The ball hit nothing but net on its way to the floor, elevating the Braves lead back to 4. They led 14-10 at the end of one.
Leonardtown started the quarter fast, scoring 5 points in less than 20 seconds. But they mellowed out, and the pace of the game slowed down. Over a 5:10 stretch of the quarter, the Braves didn’t score a basket, but only found themselves down by 4 when they eventually hit a shot. Leonardtown’s defense was causing turnovers nearly every possession, and creating mayhem for the shooters of the Braves. Leonardtown had built up a 10 point lead heading into half. In the quarter, the Braves only scored 6 points. At half, the Raiders were led in scoring by Trey Moore, who scored all of his 8 points in the second quarter, and Stone, who had put his 6 on the board in the first quarter. The Braves were led in scoring by Davis with 5, and Elijah Smith, with 4.
In the third quarter, Chopticon came out, and got the lead back down to 4, and were within striking range of the Raiders lead. But at the end of the quarter, The Raiders quickly scored 8 points, fueled by steals by Trey Moore to get their lead back to 8 heading into the final quarter.
In the final quarter, the Raiders slowed the pace of the game down, and passed the ball around among them, only shooting when they had no other option. They put up 16 in the quarter, and did just enough to hold the Braves to 40 points. The Raiders won their first round matchup by a score of 57-40, and advance to play at Annapolis High on Monday, February 29.
The Braves were led in scoring by Brandon Lowe, who scored 12 points all on 3 point attempts. Smith, and Davis also contributed 8 points each. Leonardtown was led in scoring by Moore, who scored 15. Ryan Stearns contributed 10 points to the Raiders as well.