'That is what a senior captain does': Arie Wilson guides Roosevelt hoops to tournament win

KENT — While Arie Wilson has been a prolific 3-point shooter this season, foul shooting has been another story for the Kent Roosevelt senior guard.

As the Rough Riders opened postseason play at home Saturday afternoon against Shaker Heights, Wilson had drained 47 shots from beyond the arc, but only was converting about 40 percent from the free-throw line.

You would have never believed the latter figure after seeing the Wilson convert 7 of 8 attempts from the line in the final eight minutes to help the Rough Riders turn back the Red Raiders 42-32 for the program's first postseason victory in several years.

"I am not really good at free throws," Wilson confessed after the game. "But I just try to focus and make sure my follow-through (is good) and to continue to make free throws. (Today), I made sure that I took deep breaths and shot my shots."

Rough Riders coach Craig Foreman is also puzzled by Wilson's percentages from the line as opposed to beyond the arc, but appreciated her effort from the line in a tight game that could have ended his squad's season.

"She has the school record here for 3s this season with 47 and what she had today, but, yeah, that has always been her thing in games," he said. "But she cleaned it up today, really well, and just focused.

"That is what a senior captain does, and I am really proud of her. Her biggest thing is she loves to shoot it soft, and when she shoots it soft and relaxes, she is fine. That is the same thing with her 3s; when she tenses up, it doesn't go. Same thing at the line. Just shoot through it. Julia [Nash] was a little under the weather today, so Arie kind of had to step up and take on a little more of that role as a leader. She did, and the free throws showed it."

Roosevelt never trailed over the final 28 minutes, but the hosts could not put away the Red Raiders until the final 60 seconds when Nash hit two free throws and Wilson made four straight from the line to seal the issue.

Roosevelt (11-12) advanced to a Division I second-round game Thursday at Olmsted Falls.

Shaker Heights, which used a 7-0 run over the final 3:15 of the first half to even the score at 17, knotted the score at 28 at the outset of the fourth quarter on a 3 by Naria Jones.

Nash then picked up her fourth foul at the 7:39 mark but remained in the game, and Wilson broke the deadlock with a free throw to make it 29-28.

After the Red Raiders missed several opportunities to take the lead, Nash splashed a 3 with 5:25 showing to extend the margin to 32-28.

"She is our floor leader in every way, shape and form," said Foreman of his junior point guard, who finished with seven points. "We had to find a way to keep her in there. The third and fourth were both strange fouls, it didn't seem normal, meaning I felt like we could keep her in there. As we got toward the end, we did some offense/defense (matchups) with her. We had to find a way to keep her on the floor."

Shaker Heights (3-18) sliced the gap to two midway through the quarter, but Maddie VanDamme answered with a 15-footer and Wilson followed with two more free throws.

Lizzy Favret, who led the Red Raiders with 13 points, drew her team within four with just over a minute left before Nash and Wilson iced the game at the line.

"The most important thing was to relax, don't force anything and be able to make good plays," said Wilson of her team's resolve to keep the Red Raiders at bay.

The 6-foot-2 Favret was the only answer Shaker Heights had for the Roosevelt post tandem of 6-3 Claire VanDamme and 6-2 Zariyah Taylor, and the visitors started the game well on the glass. However, over the final 24 minutes, VanDamme and Taylor dominated the boards.

Averaging a combined 18 caroms, Taylor (17) and VanDamme (14) sparked the Rough Riders to a 57-26 advantage. More impressive was the fact the two combined for 21 offensive boards. As a team, Roosevelt had 33.

"We challenged our bigs that it was going to be their game to get those rebounds," said Foreman. "Shaker is a really good rebounding team, (Favret) is really good, and so are their other players. Everybody had to find a body, but especially our bigs. For a while there we struggled, but we cleaned it up in the second half (32-10 on the boards)."

Though the second- and third-chance opportunities did not result in points — Roosevelt shot 15-of-57 for a 26-percent clip — the aggressiveness on the boards limited possession-time for the Red Raiders and eventually wore them down.

"They made it a goal at the beginning of the year that they wanted to advance in the tournament because we have not done that in a number of years," said Foreman. "So, I think they were going to do whatever it took."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Arie Wilson guides Roosevelt girls basketball to tournament win