Carr steals the show, leads No. 3 Patterson to win over No. 2 City

With his team trailing for most of the game, Patterson’s sophomore guard Aquille Carr turned it on when it mattered most.

Carr scored 15 of his game-high 38 points in the fourth quarter to lead the No. 3 Clippers past No. 2 City, 79-68, on Tuesday evening at the Castle on the Hill in front of a packed gym.

“Coach [Harry Martin] always tells me when we condition for 32 minutes of practice, the last 15 minutes run hard. So I wasn’t even tired. I just kept my head in the game and didn’t worry about the crowd and played like my coach told me to,” said Carr.

“I laid into him at halftime,” Martin said referring to Carr.  “I told him that he went 3-of-16 shooting in the first half and wasn’t getting his teammates involved.  In the second half, the shot selection was a little bit better and once he gets a couple to go down, he’s rolling.  That is why he is one of the top players in the country.”

The Knights had the challenge of squaring off with Carr just three nights after they were burned by another top Baltimore point guard in St. Frances’ R.J. Williams.  Williams, headed to Loyola College, scored a game-high 26 points on Saturday to help the Panthers knock off then-No. 1 City, 78-66, to take over the top spot.

“[Carr] is such a tough, tough kid,” said City coach Mike Daniel.  “We’ve played two of the toughest guards in the area back-to-back…we just have to continue to work.”

Sophomore forward Myrek Lee-Fowlkes scored 18 points and added eight rebounds for the Clippers (6-0 overall, 1-0 Baltimore City Division I), while seniors Donte Williams and Karrell Goines both added seven points.

Senior guard Mike Cheatham scored a team-high 17 points for City (3-2, 0-1).  Junior forward Charles Tapper added 16 points and 18 rebounds and Maryland-bound guard Nick Faust added 14 points.

With 5:11 left in the fourth quarter, Lionel Green threw down an emphatic dunk to give the Knights a slim 62-58 advantage. Then, Faust was fouled and sent to the line for two shots.

He missed both.

Patterson was called for a technical foul and Faust took those free throws attempts.

He missed both. The Knights missed nine straight free throws in the final quarter and went 2-for-13 from the line in the last eight minutes of the game.

Carr didn’t have a problem making his shots.  The 5-foot-7 dynamo seemed to get quicker and more aggressive as the game went on.

The Knights led 17-16 after one quarter and had a 36-30 advantage at halftime.

In the third quarter, Lee-Fowlkes and Carr combined to score 23 of their team’s 26 points and tied the game at 56-56 entering the fourth.

“Myrek has been playing with me since I was 12-years old,” Carr explained.  “I believe in him so I know if he has my back, I’m good.  Once I see him open, I can believe in him to hit that shot.”

After Green’s slam, City went scoreless for the next 3:31 before Tapper hit one-of-two from the line.  In that span, the Clippers went on a 12-0 run that was started by an and-one by Lee-Fowlkes and was capped by a strong finish at the basket by Carr.

Daniel had a two-word phrase to sum up his team’s loss:

“Foul shots,” he said.  “We had a [four point] lead with four foul shots and we missed all four of them; it turned the game around.”

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