Gorman’s strong start quickly erased in loss to Oakland school

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 | 10:15 p.m.

Everything seemed to be going right for the Bishop Gorman High basketball team at the end of the first quarter Friday against Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland in the Tarkanian Classic at the Orleans Arena.

Senior guard Noah Robotham had seven points in the final 1:17 of the quarter and the Gaels held Bishop O’Dowd’s highly-touted center Ivan Rabb relatively in check with just four points.

The rest of the game, however, belonged to Rabb and his teammates.

Bishop O’Dowd opened the second quarter on a 16-3 scoring run and the 6-foot-9 Rabb finished with a game-high 24 points on 12-of-18 shooting to hand Gorman a 68-54 defeat.

Gorman was limited to seven points in the second quarter, falling behind for good.

“They beat us up. They took us out in those last three quarters,” Gorman coach Grant Rice said.

The game featured three of the nation’s top post players for the class of 2015 in Rabb and Gorman’s Stephen Zimmeran and Chase Jeter. Rabb is rated the No. 3 overall prospect for the recruiting class by rivals.com; Zimmerman is No. 2 overall and Jeter is No 21.

The showdown brought a handful of college coaches to town, including Arizona’s Sean Miller. Arizona has offered a scholarship to all three players.

Jeter scored 13 points and had eight rebounds, but Zimmerman never found his groove, scoring just six points on 3-of-6 shooting. Robotham led Gorman with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting with four assists and three steals.

Gorman trailed by double digits for most of the second half but trimmed its deficit to 50-42 after a Robotham basket one minute into the fourth quarter. Bishop O’Dowd quickly responded with a 13-0 scoring run to put the game out of reach.

“They just took it at us,” Rice said. “They were tougher than us. They played harder than us tonight and they beat us down. It was a good win for them.”

Gorman is 2-1 in the Tarkanian tournament after beating Valor Christian of Colorado 63-53 earlier today. Zimmerman scored a game-high 19 points in the win, and Jeter and Nick Blair each posted 12 points.

The Gaels return to action at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Gorman in the event’s third-place game.

“We just aren’t consistent,” Rice said. “We have to get better; we have to get tougher. We have to grow up and learn from this. Obviously, we have a game in less than 24 hours. That’s the good thing about basketball, you don’t have to wait a week to play another game.”

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.