By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RIVER RIDGE – A shorthanded Riverside team survived a big district scare at John Curtis Tuesday, but survived to leave River Ridge with an 80-77 victory to remain undefeated in District 9-2A.

“It was a big win,” said Riverside coach Timmy Byrd. “We went in without three of our top six players, and we knew it would be a battle. We were lucky to come out of there with the win.”

Lucas Martin-Julien scored 24 points to lead the Rebels (23-6, 3-0), despite fouling out early in the fourth quarter. Ricardo Gathers scored 22. Zelvyn Smith scored 14.

Riverside endured the efforts of a red hot Malik Morgan, who scored 50 points on the night to spur the Patriots on.

“Curtis played very well, and Malik Morgan was exceptional,” said Byrd. “He hit a bunch of threes for them. We had some guys step out of a reserve role and step up in a big way for us.”

One who stepped up was Nate Williams, who started along with T.J. Scott in the backcourt — both players were filling in for injured starters. Riverside was missing two starters and a top reserve in Louis Dabney, Donald Thomas and John Lewis. All were held out due to injury. Williams made the most of his chance, collecting nine steals on the night.

“He played really well. And when we had to go without Rico (Gathers) at times, Trevin Woods did a really good job filling in for him defensively. Trevin was playing with the flu, and it was a really gutty effort.”

Riverside trailed by 15 in the third quarter but began to make a push late in the frame. Martin scored 12 points in a stretch of five minutes that fueled a surge that lifted Riverside back into a four-point lead.

Things went back and forth for much of the fourth quarter. Curtis (12-6, 0-1) reestablished a one-point lead, but a late Gathers score put Riverside back ahead. Then Riverside made a stop and Scott was fouled with 18 seconds left. He made a free throw to put RA ahead by two. The Rebels stopped Curtis again, added another free throw, and held on for the victory.

Riverside is now in the midst of a welcome break. Its scheduled game with St. Thomas More was cancelled Friday night, and a proposed rescheduling for Saturday was also cancelled. Its next game is Tuesday at St. Charles.