After twice stripping the ball from Lake Braddock sophomore Corey Pelham and converting the steals into five points early in the fourth quarter, Robinson senior Ashrifi Nai-Tetteh acknowledged as he came off the floor that he should have imposed his will earlier in Monday’s contest.
While the Robinson guard taking an aggressive defensive approach in the first half might have made life easier for the Rams, Nai-Tetteh’s fourth-quarter performance made life miserable for the rival Bruins.
Nai-Tetteh scored 14 points in the final 8 minutes to go with his two clutch steals and the Robinson boys’ basketball team came from behind to beat Lake Braddock 65-59 at Robinson Secondary School.
The Rams trailed 47-42 entering the fourth quarter. After Nai-Tetteh made a pair of free throws, the Robinson guard stripped Pelham and converted a three-point play after he was fouled while making a layup. Nai-Tetteh stripped Pelham again moments later, this time the steal resulted in a pair of free throws for the senior, giving the Rams their first lead since the opening minutes of the first quarter.
“I’ve been playing against [Pelham] since last year,” Nai-Tetteh said. “I knew from fall league earlier this year when I pressured him, he made bad decisions. I just knew that if I did that, I could turn the game around and get the momentum going our way.”
Pelham buried a 3-pointer to put Lake Braddock back on top, but Robinson went ahead to stay when Joey Powell scored near the rim, giving the Rams a 51-50 advantage.
Nai-Tetteh buried a 3-pointer with 5:29 remaining, giving the Rams a four-point lead, and made a pair of free throws with less than one minute to go, helping hold off the Bruins.
Robinson trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half and was down five entering the fourth quarter, but Nai-Tetteh’s timely defensive plays helped spark the Rams.
“He’s our best defender,” Robinson head coach Brian Nelson said. “He knows it and that’s really no big secret. He’s a particularly good on-ball defender … but he … [hadn’t] yet this season through three games, until that fourth quarter, asserted himself in the way that he can, defensively. I think he just, for whatever reason, picked that moment that this is when I’m going to actually show what I can do at the defensive end of the floor and he made some plays.
“The game absolutely turned on those plays he made.”
Nai-Tetteh finished with 20 points and six rebounds. Powell had 13 points, and Brent Yantis and Avi Silberman each had eight.
Austin Jones totaled four points and seven rebounds for Robinson.
Nelson said the Rams are talented, but many of this year’s key contributors were role players on last year’s team. On Monday, the Rams earned their first win of the season after losing games against South Lakes and Potomac Falls.
“We kept talking about over the weekend [about how] we just need to get one and kind of get the weight off our backs of ‘when is that first win going to come?’” Nelson said. “We know we have a talented team, we just are a little lean on experience closing games.”
Lake Braddock had just four players score Monday night. Reagan Jones led the way with 17 points. James Butler finished with 16 points, Pelham had 14 and Elliott Johnson added 12. Johnson grabbed seven rebounds, and Butler and Jones each had five.
Robinson (1-2) travels to face South County at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Lake Braddock (1-1) hosts Westfield at 7:30 tonight.