The Eleanor Roosevelt boys basketball team had their home opener Thursday night against the MSA No. 1 private school, DeMatha Stags.
Cameron Brown got hot for Roosevelt early on to keep his team in the game and fairly close for most of the way. His shooting along with Jaden Faulkner ability to get to the rim was phenomenal.
Both teams were tied going into the first quarter at 20. On the other side for the DeMatha Stags, it was Dj Harvey, the Notre Dame commit who got the crowd in the game with a huge highlight rejection in the quarter.
Other than Faulkner, Barly Kanu and Gus Okafor, the other Roosevelt players had a hard time getting layups over the giants of DeMatha. Hunter Dickerson and Josh Carlton had several blocks in the game.
Going into halftime at 36-32. The DeMatha Stags were led by Justin Moore with 12 points, he got to the rim efficiently for the Stags and was a scoring threat.
In the 3rd quarter on a run by Eleanor Roosevelt, Barly Kanu made impact plays in one being his deep three point shooting and a drive to the rim over the athletic Dj Harvey. Not connecting on two alley oop plays between Jaden Faulkner and Gus Okafor in the first and second half, they finally connected on one late in the second half which cut Roosevelt deficit to 65-59.
Off DeMatha turnovers, Jaden Faulkner and Barly Kanu converted on key layups which made the score 69-65 for DeMatha’s lead. Unfortunately Roosevelt could not finish the game, Uconn commit, Josh Carlton finished with a game high of 20 points and for Eleanor Roosevelt, Barly Kanu was right there to match him almost finishing the game with 19 points. The Stags won 73-65 over the Raiders.
