Trojans Ruin Rams Senior Night

The boys basketball game Friday night between Rockville and Gaithersburg started with a ceremony to honor the four seniors on the Rams. For a while, it looked like those seniors would have a nice memory of their final home game of their careers.

However, a disastrous third quarter put the team in a deep hole, and while they battled hard for the rest of the game, they fell to the Trojans 59-47.

“We were playing well through most of the second quarter,” Rockville coach GJ Kissal said after the game. “We just stopped doing some of the things that made us successful, we got beat on some 50/50 plays and we just turned the ball over too much.”

The Rams got their initial lead by letting the offense run through senior DeAndre Kelly, one of the four players honored before the game. Kelly scored all 12 points for the Rams in the first quarter, showing off his various skills. Midway through the quarter, he was able to reach in and poke away a steal around midcourt, grabbing the ball and taking it in for a dunk that brought the crowd to their feet. Later in the quarter, he took a fadeaway shot from the corner over two defenders, swishing the three-pointer.

“When we play our best, he's [Kelly's] playing well,” Kissal said. “He's playing well, and everybody's playing well...We want to get him touches when we need the big buckets. He usually delivers.”

Kelly, who scored 21 points, was matched early on by Gaithersburg's Kris Westphall. The senior forward for the Trojans scored all eight points for the Trojans in the first quarter, and went on to score 23 in the game.

The game came down to the third quarter. The Rams had trouble dealing with full various full-court and half-court pressures that the Trojans threw at them. The pressure forced a few turnovers, and also made it difficult to find Kelly. Gaithersburg outscored Rockville that quarter 23-10.

“We had them on the ropes in the second quarter,” Kissal said. “We gave a team that was on their heels confidence. Then all of a sudden we're in a dogfight, a big play goes their way, and they get more confident while we get more nervous, and there we go.”

While the game, much like the season for the Rams, was very up-and-down, Kissal talked about how proud he was of the senior class of Kelly, Aaron Kasinitz, Darien Henson and Tyler Henson.

“Each of them overachieved,” Kissal said. “They all worked so hard and developed into real special players. Unfortunately, we couldn't reward them tonight, but I'll remember them fondly because they work as hard as I try to work.”

The Rams will have one more regular season game before the playoffs. The team will face one of their cross-town rivals, Richard Montgomery, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Richard Montgomery High School.