Reading’s Emmanuel Egbuta, right, battles for a rebound with Albany’s Arsenio Arrington during the Rebels’ loss to the Patroons. (COURTESY OF BILL SNOOK)
The Reading Rebels suffered their third straight loss, falling 108-104 to the Albany Patroons in a The Basketball League game Sunday at Alvernia’s Jack McCloskey Court.
After trailing by as much as 13 in the fourth quarter, the Rebels tied it 82-82 but could not close it out.
In the Rebels’ last matchup on May 12 against the Patroons, they completed a 20-point comeback to secure the win in the final seconds.
This time it did not fall in the Rebels’ favor as they fell to 16-5.
“We went down 10, 13, 14 (points) in the second half and then we used all of our energy to try to get back in the game,” Reading coach Joe Linderman said. “We scratched and clawed to get back into it. Tied it up, then we started trading buckets and couldn’t get that stop at the crucial, critical time.”
The Rebels jumped to a 13-6 lead before the Patroons went on a 17-6 run to end the first quarter. The Rebels would not recapture the lead.
Reading was able to get its offense going a bit in the second quarter, but could not stop Albany on the defensive end and trailed 50-37 late in the half.
Rebels captain Richard McCalop had a huge buzzer-beater block on Albany’s Mustapha Traore to send Reading into the locker rooms on a positive note.
McCalop led the Rebels with 10 of his team-high 23 points in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Rebels were able to cut their deficit to 80-75 right before Albany’s Arsenio Arrington completed an alley-oop dunk to end the quarter to extend the lead back to seven.
McCalop started the fourth quarter with a deep 3-pointer, then Maurice Henry and Anthony Lee each made two-point shots to tie it at 82-82.
Reading tied again at 84-84, then at 92-92 apiece with half the quarter left to play. That is when Albany’s Traore took over.
The big man scored 12 straight points for the Patroons to extend the lead to 104-97 with two minutes remaining.
“It was that one hard dribble, two dribbles to the left pull-up,” Linderman said on Traore’s tendencies. “We knew what he was going to do, but he made tough shots.”
The Rebels were able to cut it to 106-103 with 34.1 seconds left after Emmanuel Egbuta hit two free throws and a layup.
After a miss by the Patroons, Carr was fouled and he converted 1-of-2 to cut it to 106-104 with 8.8 seconds left.
Reading had to intentionally foul and sent Derrick Rowland Jr. to the line with 5.6 seconds. He made both to ice it.
For Reading, Tarojae Brake had 10 points, Egbuta had 19 points and Henry had nine points and 13 rebounds.
For Albany, Traore scored a game-high 30 points and Edward Dyson III had 27.
The Rebels will look to end the three-game skid on Saturday against the Virginia Valley Vipers, who they are 4-0 against on the season.
“We have to come out and play Virginia on Saturday and win that game,” Linderman said on how his team can bounce back. “Then AC (Atlantic City) to finish the season. Hopefully, not hopefully, most likely we’re going up to Albany in like eight, nine days and play them again in the first round of the playoffs.”
The Rebels have split the season series at one apiece with the Patroons.
Reading, which already is guaranteed to be in the postseason, will clinch the third seed in The Basketball League playoffs with a win against Virginia Valley