Ravenscroft, Cardinal Gibbons split basketball rivalry games

Don’t misunderstand Ravenscroft’s Ian DuBose when he says teams that want to beat the Ravens better do it this year. The 6-foot-4 senior guard wants to win every game his school plays.

But he looks around at the young talent that he led to a 59-56 win over Cardinal Gibbons Tuesday night at the Ravens’ gym and sees the building blocks of a rising powerhouse.

“Being a senior, I’m trying to bring these guys along and be a leader,” DuBose said. “We have a lot of good young players on this team. They’re going to get better and be tough to beat in the future.”

Ravenscroft’s boys (6-2) won the nightcap of the non-conference double-header after the Gibbons girls (4-1) defeated the Ravens 56-50.

BOYS

DuBose, who is committed to Houston Baptist, a Division I program that plays in the Southland Conference, scored 16 points with seven in the decisive fourth quarter. Gibbons went on a 7-1 run to cut Ravenscroft’s lead to 44-41 before DuBose responded with back-to-back baskets to bump the lead back to seven points.

“We’re playing good basketball right now, but we’re a young team,” DuBose said. “I think we can still play better.”

DuBose held off the Gibbons’ rally early in the period and junior guard Chris Barnette lifted the Ravens with his free throw shooting down the stretch. He hit 6-of-6 in the final period and finished with 15 points. He hit 7-of-7 for the game with each one whipping the nets with no rim contact.

The other starters joining DuBose and Barnette were 6-foot-8 junior Jack Hemphill, 6-foot-7 sophomore Jake Van Der Heijden and 6-foot junior guard DeMarcus Taylor.

The bench, including 6-foot-8 freshman Myles Evans and 6-foot-3 freshman Elijah Sanders, showed depth. At halftime, the bench had scored 17 of Ravenscroft’s 31 points for a seven-point halftime lead. Senior Douglas Elks had scored nine of his 12 points, junior Nate Cohen all five of his and Evans all three of his.

Gibbons suffered its first loss to fall to 3-1. Michael Walsh showed some good moves around the basket to finish with 15 points. Madison Maloney added nine points off the bench.

GIRLS

Gibbons senior Madison Bonello scored 18 points with six 3-point field goals to lead the Crusaders to their first win over Ravenscroft in four years.

“This is a big rivalry for us, so it was finally important to beat them for the first time in four years,” she said. “We’re a young team, but I think we can be a really good team. We have good chemistry and really play well together.”

The Crusaders need to work on their free throws though. In the fourth quarter, they missed the front end of two one-and-ones and made only 2-of-8.

Madison Reid added 11 points and Nwadinso Oguama 10 to join Bonello in double figures.

Ravenscroft (5-2) was led by 21 points from junior Dasha Teyf and 15 from senior Lynn Johnson.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 12:40 AM with the headline "Ravenscroft, Cardinal Gibbons split basketball rivalry games."