MILTON, GA -- Three days into December and Milton and Roswell were ready to rekindle the North Fulton rivalry on the hardwood.

Roswell clawed back into the game with a 10-1 run in the final two and a half minutes of the third quarter and cut the Milton lead to four point with 4:24 to play but the surge wasn't enough. Milton brought home the win 57-48 on a rainy Tuesday night.

Georgia Southern bound big man Shawn O'Connell scored 17 points and ripped down 11 rebounds in the win. For O'Connell, the game has a little extra meaning. He transferred from Roswell to Milton in between his sophomore and junior seasons.

He played with a little extra juice in the first half and even threw down an offensive putback dunk that brought the Milton faithful to their feet.

"This is definitely one of our biggest games of the year. We want to beat them more than anyone," O'Connell said. "They are our rival and we're going to give it our all against them."

O'Connell didn't do it alone. Sophomore big man Chris Lewis scored eight points of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and made some big shots to the approval of new coach Matt Kramer.

"He made a big-time move that he made when the game got close, a move that you see on T.V. where he spun and made a baby hook. That was a shot that settled us down," Kramer said. "That was really important to us."

Milton point guard Jordan Burrows hit some shots down the stretch in the fourth quarter and sank some insurance free throws to help ease the lead. Navy-bound Mo Lewis was great on the defensive end against Roswell's top scorer Tyrone Sam.

"We are still a work in progress, especially on the offensive end," Kramer said. "I think the thing I'm the happiest with in this game is we built a lead, and that's good to know we can do that, but we gave it up a bit but we stood our ground when we executed."