Robeson stuns Curie

Mariel Pittman was so hot, not even contact stopped his long-range bombing.

The senior Robeson guard drilled a four-point play from the left baseline with 26 seconds remaining that enabled the host Raiders to stun No. 21 Curie 56-52 on Monday afternoon.

Pittman drilled five three-pointers and scored 26 points to power the victory over an undermanned Curie team playing without its top three scorers.

“I saw [the Curie defender] coming at me and I felt the contact, but it didn’t matter because I knew it was going in,” Pittman said.

Robeson guard LaShane Purdy (15 points, six steals) set up Pittman’s heroics.

Curie sophomore guard Asante Smiter (23 points) scored on a putback in the lane with 1:18 remaining that put the Condors up 51-50. On the ensuing possession, Curie (15-7, 7-1 Red-Central) rebounded a Robeson (12-8, 6-2) miss and were attempting to move the ball into the front court when Purdy made a steal, broke down the Curie defense and found the wide open Pittman.

“He’s my best teammate,” Pittman said of Purdy. “The coaches told us we really had to pick up the pressure.”

Curie played without sophomore star Wayne Blackshear, who is reportedly finalizing his transfer to Morgan Park. Second-leading scorer Jeremy Price did not play because of a one-day in school suspension.

Junior forward Dennis Hodges also remains out with a finger injury.

Curie coach Mike Oliver said the team has accepted Blackshear’s departure.

“We got a big win yesterday [against No. 5 Morton] without Wayne because we played as a team,” Oliver said. “That’s what the game is about, the team and not one player. Wayne made a decision, and he’s still friends with a lot of guys on the team.”

The Condors missed 7 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“That really hurt us because it could have give us some separation,” Oliver said. “You knew sooner or later that was going to come back and get us.”

Ryan Scott added nine points for Curie, who lost out on a chance to clinch the conference title. The Condors play Kenwood in a rescheduled game Wednesday. The Condors hold the tiebreaker over Hyde Park.

The game marked the first day since Public League administrators instituted new rules preventing the visiting fans from attending the game, except under special circumstances. The game was played without incident.