Lakeland, FL – The Rickards Raiders have successfully defended their  3A State Title. It wasn’t easy as they defeated an athletic and  extremely persistent Jones team 60-54 in Overtime. The Raiders (22-  7) were in a battle from start to finish with D’Marnier Cunningham and  Chris Bryant leading the way with 16 and 14 respectively, but it was  Desmond Gibson’s 6 points at the start of OT that spelled out the  beginning of the end for the Tigers who finished the season at 24-6.

It was an unbelievable individual effort from Jones’ Angelo Warner.  The 6’2” Senior Point Guard refused to allow his team to go down without a fight, but in the end his 29 points were not enough. The Tigers were 19% from 3-point range and even outshot the Raiders 48-37, but as Coach Raheem Morris says “Stats are for losers” since the one that counted the most read against the Tigers favor.

“We expected them to pressure us; but we had plan A, plan B, and plan C ready for that.” said Head Coach Eli Bryant of Rickards. “I don’t panic, and I don’t expect our kids too either.” The Raiders lightning-in-a-bottle Point Guard Jakari Bush was in agreement with his coach. “We called the timeout when we were down 7. They (teammates) were looking at me in the huddle with this look and I just said ‘let’s go’ and nothing else was said.”