Mariners sink Shea
No. 7 Raiders never get going in blowout loss to No. 2 Narragansett
NARRAGANSETT – The No. 7 Shea boys basketball team suffered just one blowout loss all season – a 25-point home loss to East Greenwich – but the Raiders’ ability to compete within Division II suddenly abandoned them during Monday’s quarterfinal game against the Mariners.
With sophomore point guard Erickson Bans battling the flu, the Raiders struggled offensively all night, connecting on 13 of 59 shots and failing to register double-digit points in the first half. A seasoned Mariner squad took advantage of the poor shooting and turnovers (18), romping their way into the semifinals with a 69-33 win.
“It was one of those nights,” Shea coach Stephen DeMeo said. “If it was in December, you chalk it off. Tomorrow’s another day. Being a playoff game, we were hungry for success [it just wasn’t there].”
“That was good,” Mariner head coach Kyle Bodington said. “It starts on the defensive end [for us]. The kids came out and knew their defensive responsibilities. They did it right away. On the offensive end, let’s work till we get an easy shot and they did that. Good way to start the playoffs.”
Bans had a team-high seven points, but was clearly not his normal dynamic self right from the opening minutes. Mariner point guard London Sudduth hounded Bans every time he had the ball, and was quick to let him know about every turnover he committed.
“[Sudduth] beat him to the spot when he went right and that was important,” Bodington said. “We wanted to force him left and we did that. He got in his head early, and you don’t get in that caliber of a player’s head that early.”
Bans sat out Shea’s opening round game against Prout, but the Raiders still managed to squeak by the Crusaders, 53-52.
“He’s been battling the flu for a week,” DeMeo said. “He missed the Prout game and our last regular season game. He hasn’t practiced. This was the first time he had got out [on the court].
“He runs the show. He dishes the ball – you could see he was weak tonight. It looks like he lost a ton of weight.”
Gerald Soe has stepped up previously for the Raiders when Bans has been out – most notably by scoring 16 points against Prout and forcing a second overtime against Chariho in a regular season game. His offense was as lackluster as his teammates on Monday, however. He finished with four points.
A Soe 3-pointer was the opening bucket for his team, but by that time they were already in a 15-point hole. The Mariners rarely missed on their 15-0 opening run, and when they did they beat Shea to offensive boards for second-chance scores.
“I thought we we were going to do a lot better than we did,” DeMeo said. “They went up 15-0. I called a couple of timeouts to make some adjustments, but no matter what we did they were just 10 times better than us, in every aspect of the game.
“They out-rebounded us, out-hustled us, out-coached us. They ran their sets to a T, and their defense took us out of everything we wanted to do. Every one of their guys was quicker than our guys, bigger than our guys.”
Thomaz Whitford dominated on the interior, which is nothing new for the talent- ed senior big-man. He also stepped out past the 3-point line for the Mariners on Monday, draining a pair of deep jumpers. His dunk on a fastbreak in the second half increased the lead to 62-20, an exclamation point on the dominant win. Whitford had a game-high 20 points.
The Raiders could potentially still have meaningful basketball left to play. Prior to Monday night’s slate of playoff games, they stood in 14th place in the state rankings. The top 16 qualify for the Open tournament.
Teams behind the Raiders that still have a shot at earning more points are Classical, East Providence and Tiverton. Classical plays Bishop Hendricken tonight, while the Townies face Mount Pleasant. Tiverton plays their first playoff game against Lincoln, also scheduled for tonight.