By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – Christian Life continued its recent mastery of Timmy Byrd’s Riverside/Reserve Christian teams on Friday night, spoiling Riverside’s undefeated home record in the process.

The Crusaders captured their sixth straight win over a Byrd-coached team on Friday night, toppling the Rebels for a thrilling 75-73 overtime victory in a non-district game.

With the majority of Riverside’s rotation built from Byrd’s Reserve Christian teams, and the two teams already having battled this season, each team was quite familiar with the other.

So too were they familiar with the game’s nail-biting conclusion, as most games in this series have come down to the wire over the past three years.

“Both teams played extremely hard and well,” said Riverside coach Timmy Byrd. “We just can’t seem to get over the hump against them.”

Said first-year Christian Life coach Carlo Maggio (speaking of the games this season): “I don’t know what it is. Any of these games could have gone the other way. We’ve been pretty lucky.”

Langston Galloway scored 24 to lead CLA, including 10 in the last four minutes of the fourth quarter.

“My teammates kept encouraging me to push it,” said Galloway. “When I looked up at the clock, I said ‘It’s my time’ now. We were determined to win the game.”

Patrick Robinson scored 22 for the Crusaders (27-4). Marlon Bell added 12.

Ricardo Gathers led four Rebel scorers in double figures with a 25 point night. Cedric Jenkins scored 17. Louis Dabney scored 12 and Donald Thomas added 10.

Riverside (26-6) led by as many as nine in the second half, but Christian Life closed the gap to set up a thrilling conclusion.

After Dabney scored to make it 55-51, Galloway went to work. He made a 3 at the top of the circle with four minutes left in regulation to make it 55-54.

His next shot would be arguably be the most impressive of the night, a step back 3-pointer over the hands of two outstretched defenders that swished through to give CLA a 57-55 lead.

No other Crusader would score in regulation as Galloway was the clear go-to guy.

“When we’re in crunch time, last four minutes, we go to Langston. It just makes sense,” said Maggio.

Said Byrd: “He made some huge shots. It’s what great players do,” said Byrd.

Gathers did some taking over of his own to keep the Rebels alive. He scored Riverside’s last six points of regulation, including two put backs. One of those tied the game at 61 with time winding down in regulation. Galloway’s final shot came short against strong one-on-one defense by Jenkins and it was on to overtime.

There, Christian Life took a 63-62 lead on McCall Tomeny’s layup and stayed ahead of the Rebels — though never leading by more than four. McCall Tomeny’s dunk with 38 seconds left put CLA ahead 72-68 , but a Jenkins’ put back made it 72-70. Bell made one-of-two at the foul line to push the lead to three. With 25 seconds left, Gathers drew iron on a 3-point attempt. Bell made another foul shot, but Jenkins canned a 3 with 14 seconds left to make it a one-point game.

Robinson made one-of-two at the line, giving RA a chance to tie or win the game on its final possession.

But CLA came up with a stop, forcing a Gathers miss on a drive to the basket and securing the rebound for the win.

“We settled for some bad shots down the stretch. I think not having any time outs in the last two minutes hurt us,” said Byrd. “I think their seniors were the difference … they’re a team of seniors, we’ve usually got three sophomores out there. And at the end, we didn’t do senior things.

“But I don’t believe either team lost this game. Christian Life won it. It was two teams just battling out there and a great team got it done.”