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Hope races past Saints cagers |
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Thursday, 05 February 2009 |
By BRENDAN McGAIR
Sports writer
PAWTUCKET – The troubles St. Raphael Academy has spent the boatload of the season trying to iron out are rapidly turning into major headaches for head coach Tom Sorrentine. And with a little over four weeks remaining in the regular season, time is of the essence to try and figure things out.
There was plenty of Avery King and Ray Johnson for SRA, but not much else was offered. Hope High closed out the contest on a 16-6 surge to hang an agonizing 67-55 loss on St. Raphael. With two teams mirroring each other in the standings, it’s the Blue Wave who got a leg up on the Saints, improving to 5-5 in Division I-East. SRA drops to 5-6 in D-I North, 8-8 overall.
As usual King (game-high 26 points, four steals) and Johnson (17 points, 17 rebounds) delivered performances that were up to task. Problem is that the Saints only had five players crack the scoring column. Three players combined for the final 12 points while six Saints finished scoreless.
Trying to find a complementary piece to go along with King and Johnson has been hard to locate for Sorrentine. The SRA coach is pinning his hopes on freshman Cesar Mejia becoming that missing link, someone who can take some of the scoring heat away from King and Johnston.
Mejia, who became eligible earlier this week, started and received plenty of minutes, finishing with two points and two critical missed free throws that would have broken a 46-all score with 6:59 remaining in the contest.
“We need guys to step up and we haven’t found the right combination yet,” said Sorrentine. “Cesar is trying to figure things out; we’re giving him a crash course.”
Turns out Hope caught SRA at a time when the Saints are trying to rebuild on the fly. Steve Wehgbey topped the Blue Wave with 18 points while John Toney delivered 14 of his 16 points in the second half.
The Saints couldn’t ask for a better start, jumping out to a 22-9 lead nine minutes in. The final 6:48 of the first half saw the Blue Wave gain steam thanks to outscoring their counterparts, 16-6. SRA ended the first half with a King floater sandwiched around three turnovers and five misfires from the floor.
Conversely Hope, which trailed 28-25 at the break, ended the half shooting 5-of-9, one the makes coming right before the horn, a lay-in off the finger tips of Kevin Brown (11 points).
“We hold for one shot and end up missing two layups,” said Sorrentine about SRA’s final possession of the opening 16 minutes. “We butchered the end of that half; that gave them juice going into the second half.”
Hope knotted the contest at 28-all as Wehgbey drilled a 3-pointer on the Blue Wave’s opening possession of the second half. Teetering on letting the game completely slip away, SRA regained some solid footing, going up 44-38 after a nice connection between Mejia and Johnson ended with Johnson driving for two.
Wehgbey spurred the Blue Wave on an 11-2 surge, scoring six straight points. The run was capped in grand style with Shaquille Jones drilling a wing trey that came on the heels of Mejia’s two misses from the charity stripe. Jones’ only hoop gave Hope a 49-46 lead, a lead the visitors would not relinquish.
King delivered a 3-point play hat brought SRA to within 51-49 with 4:07 remaining, but that’s as close the Saints would come the rest of the way. Hope broke open a tight affair by converting six free throws in the final minute.
SRA was guilty of 20 turnovers. “Those guys just took it away from us,” said Sorrentine. “It’s just frustrating.”
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HOPE (55): Jaequan Cornwell 3 0-0 8, Joe Amado 0 1-2 1, Jamaal Stephens 1 0-0 2, Dimitri Perry 0 0-0 0, Todd Hall 2 0-0 4, Kevin Brown 5 1-3 11, Shaquille Jones 1 4-4 7, Steve Wehgbey 6 5-8 18, John Toney 6 4-7 16. Totals: 24 15-24 55.
ST. RAPHAEL (67): Avery King 7 7-7 26, Ray Johnson 7 3-4 17, Nick Gaj 3 0-0 6, Chris Symonds 3 0-0 6, Jean-Daniel Roussel 0 0-0 0, Yendelby Santos 0 0-0 0, Elray Symonds 0 0-0 0, Trevor Vasey 0 0-0 0, Henry Johnson 0 0-0 0, Chris Dewornu 0 0-0 0, Cesar Mejia 1 0-2 2. Totals: 21 10-13 67.
Halftime: SRA 28-25.
Three-point field goals: H 3 (Jauquan Cornwell 2, Shaquille Jones); SRA 3 (Avery King 3).
JV: H 70-67.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 February 2009 )
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