Clash of the Titans, Part One

It was tabbed as Ali vs. Frazier, Bird vs. Magic, Shaq vs. Duncan. Think of any famous battle between two great athletes and that comparison was made for Randolph Morris and Dwight Howard’s first meeting of the season on Saturday night. It was close but the game featuring two of the top big men in the country won’t go down in history as the greatest contest of all time.

Howard’s Southwest Atlanta Christian (SACA) team was down for the majority of the game but key shots from Austin Dudley, Javaris Crittenton and Daryl Slack helped the Warriors keep Landmark Christian scoreless for a three-minute stretch in the final period. SACA held on for a 71-63 win on Saturday night at Atlanta Metro College.

“We are realizing that it is going to take everybody to win, not just me. Tonight Landmark’s whole goal was to stop me. They pretty much did from a standpoint of my numbers,” Howard said.

“Other key players on our team stepped up. Daryl Slack played well on both ends. Aljamon Alexander hit some big shots. Everyone came up big.”

Morris finished the night with an eye-popping 24 points, 25 rebounds and nine blocked shots. But the No. 19 ranked player on the Rivals150 didn’t seem fazed by his output after the game.

“Stats don’t mean anything,” Morris said. “We lost.”

Landmark Christian head coach Bryan Bartley, on the other hand, raved about his senior’s game. Bartley, who has always compared Morris to Tim Duncan, said Saturday night’s performance is just the tip of the iceberg.

“All I can say is that Randolph Morris is now showing what he can become,” Bartley said. “He is improving every game. Tonight was just another improvement.”

Howard put in a quiet 21 points and 11 rebounds but had eight very loud blocked shots. 11 of his points came from the charity stripe. And only two of his 10 points from the floor came without multiple defenders in his face. He put in a thundering open court two-hand flush with 24 ticks left on the clock.

Landmark “obviously wanted to limit the touches down into Dwight,” Bartley said. “I thought we did a good job of that.”

SACA coach Courtney Brooks said, “Teams used to send two (players) at him and that advanced to three. Now it’s advanced to four.”

Landmark and Morris will reface SACA and Howard on Jan. 30th as the two face off for part two of their on court battle at Georgia Tech. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.

“We are looking forward to it. I want every game to be tough for us. The rematch is going to be awesome. I don’t expect anything less than a Goliath, gladiator war,” Brooks said of his SACA team.