Raiders fall short in bid to reach final Classical avenges defeat to No. 2 Shea in semifinals
EAST PROVIDENCE — The last time Shea High faced Classical back on Jan. 20, the Raiders squeezed out a one-point victory.
The Purple had designs on earning a bit of revenge in a Division III semifinal at Bay View Academy’s Wellness Center on Thursday night, and – for the majority of the contest – it appeared well on its way to the championship final.
Classical, however, had to withstand a furious Shea surge over the final 11-plus minutes to pull out a thrilling, entertaining 49-44 victory over the Raiders.
With the decision, Anthony Voccio’s thirdranked Purple earned a bid to the D-III title tilt opposite top-ranked Tiverton, which had secured a tight 44-40 win over No. 4 North Providence in the evening’s opener at BVA. The Purple and the Tigers will take to Rhode Island College’s Murray Center hardwood at 1 p.m., Saturday.
Unfortunately for SHS, its campaign closed at 18-4 overall.
Sophomore guard Nina Karlin notched a game-high 12 points in the affair, while junior Anita Hazziez notched 10, frosh Jasmine DePina nine and senior Adrianna Melgar five for the winners.
As for Shea, sophomore forward Yasmine Santos scored a game-leading 15, with freshman center Allison DosSantos scoring 13, junior Ashley Torres nine and sophomore Jennah Merhi four.
The second-ranked Raiders committed numerous turnovers (they finished with 17 in the first 16 minutes, compared to 14 for CHS) over the first 10 minutes of the opening session and allowed Classical to jump out to a 20-12 cushion. Amazingly, when Torres nailed a trey at the 3:02 mark, though, they had sliced it to 24-19.
Over the final 2:51, Melgar hit a foul shot, DePina a baseline 10-footer, Karlin a layup off a steal and DePina a putback to close a 7-0 run and enter the break ahead 31-19.
Twice early in the second half, the Purple extended that lead to 16, the last time after Melgar’s bucket with only 2:07 elapsed.
In fact, 27 ticks later, Shea suffered its fourth miscue of the half and seemed destined for a blowout loss.
That all changed, however, over the next 10:06. Torres nailed a short jumper, Santos’ a couple of free throws, then a sweet pull-up one-hander. When the same girl nailed a leaner off a turnover and a pair from the charity stripe with 4:11 remaining in regulation, the Raiders cut it to 42-37.
Merhi’s baseline push-up 24 seconds after knifed it to 42-39, and a golden finish was on.
Santos actually dropped a running one-hander with 1:14 on the scoreboard clock, but Karlin skated past a defender for a layup and DePina knocked down a free throw to end it at 49-44.