Ravenwood’s Elon Smallwood attempts a basket while being guarded by Patrick Murphy of Independence.
Ravenwood’s Elon Smallwood attempts a basket while being guarded by Patrick Murphy of Independence during their game at Ravenwood Tuesday January 26, 2016.
Malcom Walker of Independence eyes the basket while being guarded by Ravenwood’s Zack Tudeen.
Independence and Ravenwood played a style of basketball Tuesday night that would have made longtime North Carolina men’s basketball coach Dean Smith — master of the four-corners offense — proud.
Both offenses held the ball for a majority of the game and shots were few and far between, but the Eagles eventually emerged with a 29-22 win over the host Raptors.
“I’ve never even seen or been a part of something like that,” Independence’s Patrick Murphy said. “It was just a whole new experience for us.”
Ravenwood (11-9, 3-4 11-AAA) immediately began holding the ball to try to keep Independence (19-1, 7-0) from finding its groove on offense.
The Eagles made the most of their limited possessions and held a 7-4 lead after one quarter, however.
“We put that in yesterday,” Ravenwood coach Patrick Whitlock said. “We thought that would be effective based on film we had seen of them and it was effective for a large majority of the game.”
Ravenwood got what it wanted in the second quarter as Independence attempted to adjust to the stalling style of play. Case Bouldin scored nine consecutive Raptor points with three 3-pointers, but the Eagles took a 15-13 lead into halftime.
Bouldin finished with a game-high 11 points while Murphy led the Eagles with nine.
With just a two-point lead to start the second half, Independence decided to give the Raptors a taste of their own medicine by slowing the game down.
“We’ve had teams do that to us before so we tried to turn the table,” Independence coach Greg Glass said. “Let’s just hold it outside and make them come play defense on us now.”
The result was a four-point third quarter in which Ravenwood’s John Thompson sunk a free throw and Independence’s Pierre Watkins hit a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 18-14 lead going into the fourth.
Independence closed out the game with a relatively explosive 11-point fourth while holding Ravenwood to nine — and did so with an exclamation point as Malcolm Walker dunked the ball right before time expired.
Ravenwood 43, Independence 41: The Independence Lady Eagles led for most of the game at Ravenwood and was up by as much as six late, but Kiera Downey was fouled and sank two free throws with 3.7 seconds left on the clock to give the Lady Raptors the win.
Reach Sam Brown at 615-259-8232 and on Twitter @SamBrownTN.