Ridgewood edges Timothy Christian

Give up 25 offensive boards and it becomes extremely difficult to win a ballgame.

Timothy Christian found that out the hard way in an intense 47-44 loss at the hands of visiting Ridgewood Friday night at a raucous Ward Athletic Center in Elmhurst.

"Ridgewood was scrappy," Trojans coach Scott Plaisier said after the game. "They had 25 offensive rebounds for the game, which is one of the telltale signs for why they took care of us. That many extra possessions with guys who can shoot the ball that well is going to lead to a long night. I give their coaches and players a lot of credit for just being that tenacious on the glass. They aren't overly big, they just play with a lot of heart. We needed to be able to match that a little bit better."

Despite all the extra possessions for the Rebels (2-3, 1-0 Metro Suburban Red), the Trojans (3-3, 0-1) still had an opportunity to salvage a win at the end of the game. Down 1 point with 25 seconds remaining, sophomore guard Josh Harris received an inbounds pass and had a glimmer of daylight as he cut hard toward the basket. But a nice recovery from two Ridgewood players trapped him and forced the ball out of his hands. Harris flung it to junior guard Jack Baldridge, who couldn't connect on a difficult 3-point look.

Ridgewood hit two free-throw attempts after an intentional foul and a Trojans desperation heave at the buzzer caromed harmlessly off the rim to tack a third loss on the Trojans' season.

The 14 points the Rebels sank during the fourth quarter constituted an offensive explosion, as points were hard to come by for both teams all night. During a 14-minute stretch beginning at the start of the second quarter, the Rebels eked out just 7 points. Trojans 6-foot-7 senior wing Danardo Jones was the anchor defensively, swatting away five Rebels shot attempts.

"He can be really good for us defensively and unfortunately I think we rely on him a little bit too much," Plaisier said. "We just expect him to block everything and we weren't cleaning up behind him. He would force a miss because of his length and the back side of the rebounds were the ones we weren't cleaning up."

A 3-point field goal with two minutes to go in the third quarter from Eric Clancy ignited a sleepy Rebels offense to the tune of an 8-0 run that knotted the game back at 31 just when it looked like the Trojans were seizing control. The senior guard finished with a game-high 18 points, including two 3-point field goals as the Trojans had trouble containing him all night.

"His hesitation on his dribble was really good," Plaisier said. "We were trying to trap him a little coming off that ball screen and he was redirecting back. We would just stand up a little and he would just keep up his dribble and he'd be able to slice back towards the basket. He was really active off the bounce. He did a really good job of taking it to the basket and we just had a rough time with him tonight. He's a good player."