Central Catholic Rams hosted the Century Jaguars this Friday for round 2 of the 2013 6A State Championship. Crowds took witness to one of the most dramatic and close cut matches as these two teams battled for a seat in the Quarterfinals at the Rose Garden next week. Century set a good pace right out of the gates and managed to hold it throughout the match but eventually fell to Central Catholic coordination and stamina as the Rams take home their 17^th win in a row with a 78-70 overtime victory.

Rams set down their usual fire in the first half closing it out with an 11pt lead over the Jaguars (44-33). Starting out the second half the Rams found themselves in a bit of trouble allowing Century to run a couple point spurts that actually put them on top for a short time.

This neck and neck battle raged on to one of the most movie-like last 20 seconds of a game that I had ever seen. Back and forth fouls stretched out that piece of a minute long enough for it to come back down to a Century foul on Deante Strickland. Rams down by 2pts as Strickland takes place on the Ft line knowing the cost of failure but swept it off and tossed two buckets sending the match into overtime.

Rams were able to pull out a couple point spurts of their own scoring 14 pts in overtime to Century 6pts.

Deante Strickland was the high scorer for the night with 20, followed by Austin Dyer with 18 and Hallinan and Winston with a pair of 9’s.

Jaguar Jr. point guard Jamel Liggins put up most of Centurys’ points and had the game high of 23, followed by senior guard Madison McCaffrey with 22.

Rams are now off to the Rose Garden Wednesday March 6 for their Quarterfinal match against the South Medford Panthers. South Medford is currently #6 in OSAA rankings and hold a 10-2 league record this year.

Best of luck to all teams and players!

Story by – Nick Jones

Photos by – Nick Jones