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With two seconds left on the clock, Atlee senior guard Cameron Colquitt sank a pair of free throws to break a 57-all tie at Lee-Davis giving the Raiders a 59-57 win Capital District play last Friday.

  Typical of the intense rivalry, Atlee and Lee-Davis battled it out throughout in a game that involved nine ties and 13 lead changes.

  The Raiders began the game jumping out to a 9-2 lead in the first 1:56 of the contest on the strength of four points from Dylan Garthright and a 3-pointer from Sebastian Morrison. But from that point on, neither team gained more than a four point advantage over the remainder of the contest.

  The Confederates answered the Atlee attack with a run of their own, scoring nine straight points on a three from Greg Frame, an inside shot from Garrett Joyner and four points from T.J. Harvey to take an 11-9 lead.

  On the night, Harvey turned in one of his best performances for the C-Feds, notching a double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Throughout the game, Harvey continually crashed the boards and out-hustled Atlee defenders on the offensive glass, repeatedly scoring on put-backs.

  “T.J.’s tremendous,” said Lee-Davis head coach Tripp Metzger. “Before the game he’s got the kids in the locker room jumping up and down, hollering. He’s our emotional leader.”

  More important, Harvey carried that emotion to the floor. “I saw the fire in his eyes,” Metzger said. “I knew he was going to have a good game and we needed that out of him.”

  Harvey’s board work was especially frustrating to Atlee head coach Phil Reynolds, who made a point of emphasis about rebounding prior to the game. “We really talked about that,” he said. “We talked about that issue that they were not a really big team but the games that we’ve seen them play they really crash the offensive boards.

  “Their best offense was just getting the ball up on the rim and then getting second shots,” Reynolds said.

  However, Atlee was not without its own unheralded star in the game. Sophomore Brian Reiss turned in a superior performance throughout, blocking shots, hitting big shots and being a presence on defense.

  “He’s a big time player,” Colquitt said of his teammate. “The kid can flat out play.”

  According to Reynolds, Reiss, who sat out last season due to injury, is starting to come into his own. “He’s primarily just a street ball player and he’s just learning the game,” Reynolds said. “He’s a real talent.”

  In the see-saw battle, Lee-Davis took a one point lead into the locker room 28-27 but Atlee retied the contest seconds into the third when senior forward Daniel Faggert stole the ball and fed it to Garthright who was fouled on a shot attempt. From that point on Atlee appeared to have an answer to every C-fed run.

  Atlee led 40-36 heading into the final period of action and 48-45 with less than four minutes to play. But with 3:48 to play, C-Fed Chris Cook (18 points, three 3-pointers) scored off an inbounds to trim the Atlee lead to one at 48-47. When the Raiders turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds, Lee-Davis struck again, scoring off the inbounds from Frame to Dustin Abele for a 49-48 lead.

  The Raiders answered with a 6-2 run, capped by a jumper from freshman Ruben Rucker for a 54-51 Atlee lead with 1:49 to play.

  But Harvey put Lee-Davis back ahead by one with a put-back of a miss then a pair of free throws with :49.2 to play.

  The Confederates appeared as if they were going to pull off the upset when Travis Abele added two free throws for a 57-54 lead with :37.7 to play.  But on the ensuing inbounds, Lee-Davis’ Garrett Joyner fouled Colquitt, sending him to the line with no time coming off the clock.

  Colquitt hit the first free throw trimming the deficit to two but then missed the second. Reiss momentarily latched onto the rebound for the Raiders before turning it over on a tie-up.

  However, when Lee-Davis attempted to inbounds the ball under the Atlee basket with :34.4 left in the game, Rucker stole the pass then fed it inside to Reiss for a short jumper to tie the game at 57 with :20.5 to play.

  With the game tied and :08.4 seconds on the clock Metzger called time out to step up a potential game-winning play. “The game plan was to get the ball into Chris’ (Cook) hands,” Metzger said. “We were going to let Chris make the decision.”

  Cook had the option of dishing off to Frame, who had already hit a trio of 3-pointers in the game or driving inside for the possibility of a shot and/or a foul.

  Cook went with the later, splitting three Atlee defenders and lofting a strongly contested shot that caromed off the back of the rim.

  Harvey left in for the rebound but collided with Colquitt who had already secured the ball. The impact sent Colquitt to the floor and the officials whistled Harvey for a foul, sending Atlee to the line with :02 left on the clock.

  “It’s one of those games,” Metzger said. “I thought both teams fought hard. Both teams played the entire four quarters. You hate to see it come down to something like that. It’s one of those things from a fans’ perspective you’d like to see it go into overtime.”

  Even though Colquitt had missed his most recent attempt at the line, he said he did not feel pressure on him to make a clutch play. “Clutch would have been if we were down 57-56,” he said. “It’s almost no pressure because the worse thing we have is we go into overtime and we feel like we would win the game in overtime anyway.”

  Colquitt stroked both shots to put the Raiders ahead 59-57.

  Lee-Davis’ had one last shot a redemption but the three-quarter court pass was high and went off the hands of the receiver and into the Confederates student section allowing Atlee to hold on for the win.

  “Lee-Davis played well,” Reynolds said afterward. “They were hard for us to guard. We’re a pretty good team this year but we couldn’t keep them off the offensive boards.”
 
ATLEE (2-2 Capital, 6-6) Colquitt 20, Garthright 7, Brinks 7, Faggert 4, Rucker 6, Morrison 3, Farrar 0, Hodges 3, Reiss 9, Prince 0, Johnson 0. Totals 23 11-18 59.
LEE-DAVIS (1-3, 3-8) N. Frame 2, Cook 18, G. Frame 9, T. Harvey 18, Kyser 0, Joyner 2, D. Abele 0, T. Abele 4, Berry 4, Labons 0, Naumann 0, Boze 0. Totals 19 13-19 57.
Atlee ..................... 15 12 13 19 — 59
Lee-Davis…........... 13 15 8 21 — 57
3-point goals: A — Morrison, Reiss. LD — Cook 3, G. Frame 3. Highlights: A — Cameron Colquitt scored 9 of his 20 points in the fourth. LD —T.J. Harvey 15 rebounds.