Roosevelt's Kevin Foster soars to the basket against Second Baptist. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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121614_Roo2nd4046.jpg - Greg Yamamoto | SL

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For all but one quarter, the Roosevelt boys basketball team played evenly with Houston-powerhouse Second Baptist.

Kevin Foster scored a game-high 24 points, Keanu Furtado had 15 and Brent Quackenbush added 14 for the Rough Riders in a 74-68 loss to the Fighting Eagles Tuesday afternoon in the opening round of the Iolani Prep Classic.

"We played hard. I'm proud of the way we play," Roosevelt coach Steve Hathaway said. "We just had a bad run there in the third quarter, but we gave everything we have and this was the best game we've played so far, so we're only getting better. I really like how we ran the ball up and down the court tonight."

The Rough Riders (3-2) trailed by just a basket at halftime, 36-34, but were outscored 21 to 9 in the third quarter. The Fighting Eagles had a 9-0 run early in the period and closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run to lead by as many as 14 to start the final quarter.

"I think they tried to pick us up a little bit more forward (defensively) and then they kind of fell back and slowed us down instead of getting and just going," Hathaway said of Second Baptist's halftime adjustments. "They were trying to take away the paint a lot better. They were trying to sag off, because we weren't really shooting the 3 in the first half, so it looked like they were trying to sag into the paint a little bit more, but still that team can shoot."

Second Baptist coach Kevin Mouton confirmed Hathaway's assessment.

"We were giving up a lot of layups in the first half because they do a good job of getting to the basket, so we just really focused on stopping the penetration to the paint and then we start switching (between man and zone defenses) to help us out, but that's what it was — to stop them from getting to the paint — because they were really, really good at getting the ball into the paint," Mouton said.

Keanu Furtado's three-point play capped a 5-0 Roosevelt run early in the fourth quarter.

Hathaway's squad chipped away at the Fighting Eagles' lead and pulled to within 72-68 with 11 seconds left on Furtado's 3-pointer from the left wing. However, Ty Daltona hit a pair of free throws to ice it for Second Baptist.

"The third quarter we slipped up, but we knew that we could fight back and if we had more time I think we could have won the game," Foster said.

Jake Kawasaki had six assists — all in the first half — including four in the opening quarter.

Daltona scored a team-high 23 points, Jalen Weber had 17 and Will Burns added 15 to lead Second Baptist (8-7), which will play the winner of Wednesday's first-round game between Kailua and St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) in a 6:30 p.m. quarterfinal Thursday.

Roosevelt will play the Kailua-St. John Bosco loser in a 12:30 p.m. consolation game Thursday.