Rams Advance With Dominant Second Half

Several weeks ago, Rockville's DeAndre Kelly said the only goal for himself was for the team to win the state title. The Rams took the first step towards that goal Friday night, beating Francis Scott Key 58-36 in the first round of the Maryland State 2A playoffs.

“Winning a playoff game is always huge,” Rockville coach G.J. Kissal said. “We set a goal to play our best game in the playoffs, and we saw that today.”

The game didn't start perfectly for the Rams. Like Richard Montgomery used in the game against Rockville earlier this week, Francis Scott Key used a box-and-one defense to try to limit Kelly. For a half this worked. Kelly only scored five points in the first half, and Rockville found themselves trailing 21-16 at halftime, and Kissal had to make some adjustments.

“We play well when we attack the basket,” Kissal said. “It's hard to pass up open jump shots that they were getting. Finally we were able to pass up those shots and fight our way towards the basket.”

Kelly scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, and Ryan Lamberg scored all 12 of his points in the second half as Rockville completely dominated after halftime. The team went on several large runs, including an 8-0 run in the third quarter, and a 16-3 run in the fourth. Francis Scott Key tried to fight back, led by Tyler Zimmerman, who scored 16 in the game, but Rockville dominated in the paint on both ends to cruise to a victory.

“They wanted to win this one emphatically and they did,” Kissal said. “When they put their minds to defending and boxing out and rebounding, we can play with anyone...When we're good, we can be very good.”

The Rams will face arguably their biggest challenge of the season in their next game. On Monday, they will travel to South Carroll High School to face the Cavaliers, who earned the top seed in the 2A West region. The Cavaliers are led by senior Ryan McTavish, who has scored over 1,400 points in his career.