The last ten seconds of Tuesday's Eleanor Roosevelt - Kima matchup served as a great reminder of what makes basketball at The Rock so exciting: every team is hungry to win and anything can happen.

A foul on Roosevelt's Prince Okoroh with just three seconds left sent Kima's Anthony Livingston to the line where he made both free throws to give his team a one point lead. NieRonn Miles' desperation three barely rimmed out and Kima held on, 42-41.

Okoroh's slam dunk had given defending 4A south region champion Roosevelt the lead with just 8.2 seconds remaining but he was a little overzealous on the other end and made contact with Livingston while going for the ball.

Kima's big man didn't back down from the pressure of standing all alone at the line with the game's outcome hanging in the balance. "I've been through it before - believe so. It wasn't nothing, I knew I was going to make both of them," said Livingston after the game.

The match was a back-and-forth battle in which both teams struggled at times to find their offensive rhythm. "We played really hard today so I liked that - I thought the effort was great. We can do a little better job executing; we missed a lot of layups and in a one possession game that hurts," Roosevelt coach Brendan O'Connell told PGSportsFan after giving a passionate post-game speech to his team.

Miles and Cameron Israel led the Roosevelt attack in the first half, playing high energy basketball, driving to the basket and battling for second opportunities. In the second half, it was the athletic Okorah - a rising senior expected to lead the team next season - who carried the offense with his play in the lane and on the glass.

After the game, rising senior Antony Jones, who played the point for Roosevelt much of the second half, said he knew why his team fell short. "We could've executed a little bitter, made more plays. It shouldn't have come down to the last possession but they're a good team, we're a good team, we have to work harder and make better plays."

Coach O'Connell knows his team has to brush off the tough loss and bounce right back. "We'll see how they respond on Thursday," he said. 

*Roosevelt takes on one of Montgomery County's finest - Blake - on Thursday at 4:20. Check back for complete coverage of the game, available only at PGSportsFan.com! 

<-->