Abdela, Boman lead Twelve Bridges over Roseville

With both teams still in the hunt for a Foothill Valley League championship and with it also being senior night for Roseville High, there was a lot on the line in the game between Twelve Bridges and Roseville on Wednesday night. Twelve Bridges (23-4 overall, 9-2 FVL) led by 10 at halftime and Roseville (14-14, 8-4) got no closer than seven in the second half, as the Raging Rhinos won 72-58. Twelve Bridges got off to a 12-2 lead to start the first quarter, but by the end of the quarter Roseville had trimmed the lead to only three points, 20-17. In the second quarter, however, Twelve Bridges outscored Roseville 23-16 to take a 10-point lead, 43-33 into halftime. Safi Abdela and Micah Boman had big first halves for the Raging Rhinos, as Boman scored 20 and Abdela had 15, combining for 35 of the team's 43 points. That's exactly what Roseville didn't want to let happen. "In the first half, we really wanted to focus on Safi and Boman and they combined for 35 so we really didn't execute the game plan very well," Roseville coach Bobby Ritter said. "That hurt us a lot. We didn't communicate well enough when they moved into zones." On the other side, Twelve Bridges tried their best to contain Roseville's JJ Yong and did a good job in the first half, holding him to seven points. "I don't think we stopped JJ, but did a good job of slowing him down," Twelve Bridges coach Robert Ash said. "That's probably the best we could do with the bodies we have and with how athletic he is." In the second half, Roseville got no closer than seven points to the lead following a Tyler Ritter three. It was promptly answered by Carl Tolle, who hit a three-pointer himself. In fact, after not scoring in the first half, Tolle hit two threes in the third quarter and finished the game with 11 points. Jackson Whitesides was another player who didn't score in the first half for Twelve Bridges, but chipped in six points in the second half. "In the second half we made some adjustments and slowed Abdela and Boman down and then other guys heating up on us," Ritter said. "We tried to take away two guys and we didn't. Then we did in the second half, and other guys stepped up. I tip my hat to the rest of the guys on the Twelve Bridges team." Yong had a big fourth quarter for Roseville, as he scored 10 of his team-high 19 points, but it wasn't enough. Roseville only had five people score: Yong had 19, Ritter scored 11, Gabriel Jesudasan finished with 10 points, while Matthias Howard and Fabio Alcaide Virto both scored nine points. Abdela finished with 25 points, while Boman scored 22 for the Raging Rhinos. "I thought we did a really good job of handling Roseville's pressure," Ash said. "We really shared it offensively. We had some turnovers. It was six at halftime and by the end of the game it was probably 16 but that's not an egregious number. They play so fast and they have so many weapons. I know 58 isn't an unbelievable defensive effort, but it was considering the amount of weapons and length they have."