By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com. Sports Writer
WILLIAMSTON — With the clock racing towards zero Riverside trailed Camden 56-53 in the fourth quarter as the Knights’ Damonte James let a three-pointer fly from the top left side of the court. James’ shot looked on point as it arced towards the rim, but it was off by a just a hair, allowing the Bruins to hang on and win the Four Rivers Conference tournament title.
The No. 1 seeded Bruins, who split the regular season conference crown with Plymouth, banked a 49-37 lead over the Knights, who up to that point had been playing erratically over the first three quarters.
Riverside big man Marcus Freeman had three fouls by halftime and was limited to just eight points. Knights star guard Tremaine Anderson had been hot and cold all game, and so was the rest of the team.
However, somewhere early in the fourth it all began to click for the Knights, and after a Ramelle Lanier three-pointer swished through the net, the team trailed only 54-45 with 3:47 left in the game.
The Knights worked their way back into the game with an efficient press and some timely buckets and strung together a 16-6 run that ended with an Anderson no-look pass to Freeman to cut the deficit to 54-53 with 1:20 left in the game.
Riverside had three quality chances to overtake the Bruins, including James’ three-point attempt, but each time the ball rimmed out.
After the game, Riverside coach Bobby Williams said he was happy that his team did not roll over.
“I’m extremely pleased that we decided to battle, I just wish we would have started that a little bit earlier,” Williams said. “It just seemed we didn’t have the emotion tonight that we had last night and the legs that we had last night, but I can’t be more proud of them. We had three shots in about 30 seconds, we had a chance.”
Lanier led the Knights with 14 points, while Anderson came up with some key defensive plays in the fourth quarter and scored a total of 12 points.
With 5.9 seconds left in the game, the Knights got the ball to Anderson at the top of the three point line, but he was well defended by Camden and was forced to pass to James.
The Bruins, led by a lanky and athletic frontcourt, did a nice job of defense all night long and used a balanced attack on offense to get ahead of Riverside.
Sharp shooting forward Shawn Hammonds drained six threes and led Camden with 18 points, while Shaquille Joyner and Matt Nelson each added 16 points.
Riverside 8 11 16 26 — 53
Camden 16 19 14 17 — 56
Knights (53)
Freeman 8, Ramelle Lanier 14, Hardison 4, Tremaine Anderson 12, Rodgers 6, Moore 2, Norfleet 2, James 2, Freeman 4.
Bruins (56)
Shawn Hammonds 18, Shaquile Joyner 16, White 9, Matt Nelson 16, Forbes 5 Nelson 3/
Bruins