With five and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter, St. Andrew Episcopal’s Tyler Stewart finally hit their first shot from the floor, making it a 13-8 game. Stewart, despite his 21 point night, could not rally St. Andrew’s over Richard Montgomery. The Rockets defeated St. Andrew’s Tuesday night 57-48, topping the 20th ranked team in the preseason DMV ranking from the Washington Post.

“A lot of people said we were going to lose just because it is St. Andrew’s and a lot of the players they have are D-1,” junior Jordan Stover said. “They don’t know our starters, our deep bench – we have a lot of skill on our bench. We are really fast, and they don’t really know it.”

The Rockets rebounded from a disappointing beginning to their season, a 69-61 loss at home against Gaithersburg. Although the Rockets are at .500, there are still key points for improvement before they face Blair on Thursday. St. Andrew’s defense, bolstered by 6’8” senior George Muresan, kept the Rocket offense to the three point line.

“He’s pretty tall and hard to guard,” senior Tolu Baiyeshea said of Muresan. Baiyeshea fouled out late in the fourth quarter, but not before he scored eight points. “He drew a couple of fouls on me, but it was good competition on both sides. We pulled out in the end.” Muresan finished the night with seven points for St. Andrew’s.

The height of St. Andrew’s made it difficult for the Rockets to penetrate the lane for points. However, RM did not repeat the Gaithersburg ending to the game, where the Rockets were without a score for the last five minutes of that game. “Toward the end, we just lost our heads,” senior Nasiir Robinson said of the Gaithersburg game. “We really wanted to win tonight, and focused on mentally preparing ourselves for tonight.” Robinson had 11 points in the victory over St. Andrew’s.

“We had an opportunity postgame against Gaithersburg to point out all of our ills,” Coach Breslaw said. “[Gaithersburg] was a reality check, and it was instant analysis that we made. That’s what we need with this group, instant feedback.”

With six seconds left in the game, Daniel Alexander was in charge of the inbound play, dealing with full court press from St. Andrew’s. The man-to-man press on Joseph Contreras broke down, and the senior tore up court with an arm raised, ready for the inbound pass.

Daniel Alexander drew from his time as quarterback of the Rockets football team, and delivered a perfect ball over Contreras’ shoulder, which he put up for the final basket of the night. Daniel Alexander later described the arching ball as the “easiest throw of his life.” Daniel Alexander finished with 13 points, and Contreras with 7 points.

A relationship between brothers Daniel and Daryn Alexander was formed as both players were wide receivers for the Rockets football team. Daryn, a sophomore, came off the bench midway through the third quarter after senior Jonathon Custodio caught an elbow to his eye. Daryn went on to score 9 points Tuesday night, including a three in the first offensive series after he replaced Custodio.

“Coach decided to put me in at the right times, so I couldn’t let him down,” Daryn said. “I just felt more comfortable than last game, so it was a huge step for me.”

For St. Andrew’s, only scoring three field goals in the first half, and being only down 22-16 at half was as good as they could have hoped. St. Andrew’s shot 10/10 at the free throw line in the first half. The fourth quarter offered a different shooting percentage. 11/17 from the line as pressure built on St. Andrew’s kept them from mounting a last comeback against the Rockets.

In comparison, RM was 9/12 from the line in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of the opportunity to secure the first victory of the young season. “That comes from focus,” Robinson said. “We have a lot of experience, people have been in these situations before and we know we have to pull through, make free throws, do everything we need to do.”

Although the Rockets defeated a top-20 school in the DMV, improvement can be made before Blair comes to Richard Montgomery on Thursday. “We want to go way faster,” Coach Breslaw said. “That’s what we want our identity to be, and we can always improve, we can always get more scrappy, rebound better.”

“We responded well from the game last week” against Gaithersburg, Daryn Alexander said. “We became more of a team.”