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Ravenwood needed some sort of spark on offense Friday night against Nolensville.
Trailing by as many as 15 in the first quarter, the Raptors managed just six points in the first and had only upped it to 17 by halftime. Then the second half happened.
Propelled by a pair of highlight dunks from seniors Rocco Lamuno and Trey Hallett, the Raptors seized momentum late and rallied for the 52-47 win and their first district victory.
“Those are game changers,” Lamuno said. “I think as soon as Trey dunked on that guy, I felt like we had the game. It was like they lost hope.”
Those two dunks would have been welcomed by the Raptors in the first quarter. Ravenwood managed just two baskets in the quarter and at one points trailed 16-1. Nolensville jumped out to a 12-0 lead in the game seemed well on its way to the win.
The Raptors chipped away at the lead in the second quarter outscoring Nolensville 11-7. Neither team managed much as the lid on each basket seemed closed tight for both leading up to halftime.
Finally that lid came off for the Raptors in the third. They opened the quarter on a 14-0 lead and Lamuno’s dunk gave them their first of the game. Off a steal Lamuno found a wide-open lane to the basket and slammed it home in front of the Ravenwood student section.
Nolensville answered Ravenwood’s run with one of their own. The Knights closed the quarter on an 8-2 run sending the game to the fourth tied at 33.
Trading baskets back-and-forth to start the quarter, Hallett threw down a dunk that no one in attendance would be forgetting any time soon. Coming up with a steal, Hallett found himself with just one defender in front of him. Instead of going in soft and looking for the foul, Hallett rose up throwing down the one-handed slam and taking out the defender in the process to pick up the and-one.
“I grabbed it and it was either dish it ahead to Caleb (Peyser) or go ahead and make a play,” Hallett said. “I lifted up without thinking and yammed it on his head. I’ve never had a dunk like that before in a game.
…Dunks bring great energy to a team and bring life to them. It shifts the focus of the game and brings up your teammates if they’ve gone cold and gets them hot.”
Nolensville refused to go away even with the dunk cutting into the Ravenwood lead multiple times. The Knights tied the game with just over three minutes remaining and when Ravenwood jumped ahead by four a few minutes later, Nolensville responded with a three to make it a one-point game with 40.2 seconds remaining.
They wouldn’t get another shot to fall though as Ravenwood closed out the bounce back win from the free throw line.
“This was a really big win for us because if we dropped two in a row, we would’ve been really down going into the rest of district play,” Lamuno said. “District’s all about seeding so you want to be seeded higher so you can make a run. We don’t want to drop low so picking up wins like this are important.”
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