It turned tense late in the first half of Tuesday’s Aurora Central-at-Rangeview matchup.
With 1:38 to play before halftime, Rangeview leading scorer Tyrei Randall disagreed with a foul call, was whistled for two technical fouls and had to leave the floor with an ejection.
It didn’t look good for the home Raiders. They eventually trailed 39-25 and appeared stunned.
However, Rangeview, which entered the game 12-0 and was ranked No. 2 in the Associated press 5A media poll, rallied for a 39-30 halftime deficit, got within a point at the end of three quarters and won 68-56 against a very game Trojans group. Both teams are in the East Metro Athletic Conference, but it was a nonleague game. The matchup that will count in the EMAC standings will be on Feb. at Aurora Central.
Raiders coach Shawn Palmer was thrilled with Randall’s removal, but tried to make the best of it.
“We talked about how this script couldn’t have gone even better for us,” he said, “because we can all learn from it, including Tyrei … Tyrei’s going to learn about controling his emotions and playing with passion without losing control, and we’ll figure it out.”
Palmer was certain the 6-foot-4, left-handed Randall, who had at least one college scout on hand to viewe his game, definitely deserved one technical and wasn’t sure if there should have been a second, but, he added, “sometimes you just need to walk away.”
The Raiders’ Elijah Reed said “I like how we focused and overcame the adversity, and won the game.”
