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The final meeting of Columbus vs. Rice this basketball season came with some high-intensity action as well as some overtime drama.
Since the prior meeting between these two teams, some things have changed while many have stayed the same. For both teams, the changes have meant improvements as the weeks have gone by. The Cards have developed multiple certified, star scorers with any of those top offensive players being able to pop off for the team lead in any game. For the Raiders, their improvement has been found in their growing confidence to combine their natural gifts with their continually evolving skillsets. While many things have changed for these teams since their first meeting of the season, one of the things that stayed the same in Friday night’s Jan. 20 meeting was the result on the scoreboard as Columbus took the advantage over Rice once again in a 64-62 overtime victory on the Raiders’ home court.
In one of the tightest games of the season for either team, the Raiders and the Cards battled through a back-and-forth affair with each team exchanging blows with big shots and scoring runs. Rice led with the first strike, taking a 1614 advantage after one quarter of play. The Cards countered with a 15-point second period to take a three-point lead into the halftime break at 29-26. The Raiders had their best offensive quarter and the game’s highest-scoring quarter from either team in the third period after scoring 18 points. Rice also held the Cards to just 10 points to enter the fourth with a five-point lead on the scoreboard. Columbus got their best defensive performance in the final frame by holding the Raiders to under double digits in a quarter for the first time. The Cards battled back into the game to tie it in the waning moments. Regulation expired with the scoreboard deadlocked at 53-all.
The overtime period was as back and forth as regulation with both teams trading buckets throughout. The teams were once again tied with time running out in the extra period. It seemed the game was destined for a second overtime until Trevor Berger hit a clutch, game-winning hook shot to seal it for Columbus.
Berger was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points. He has shown an ability to get to the free throw line in recent games, racking up 10 attempts from the stripe and nailing seven of them. Cristian Reyna was the next leading scorer for the Cards, splashing four triples from outside on the way to 14 points. Colton Pitchford added two 3-pointers of his own to finish with 12 points as part of Columbus’ deadly scoring trio.
The Raiders had some strong offensive performances as well as they put up one of their best outings of the season despite the loss. Jon Woods led the team with 17 points, followed by Dyren Johnson who had 16. D’Neriyan Fuller rounded out the team’s top three scorers with 10 points.
Both the Cards and the Raiders basketball teams played games earlier in the week on Tuesday, Jan 17. Coverage of those games can be found on page six.
