BVP plays tough in first half; Skippers pull away
The Independent
NORTH KINGSTOWN — A win over last year’s state runner-up earned Blackstone Valley Prep a shot at the reigning champion.
The second upset bid was a er task.
After a solid first half that left the Pride down only seven points, second-seeded North Kingstown exploded for an 18-3 run out of the break and maintained a healthy lead the rest of the way for a 90-60 victory Thursday night in the opening round of the state tournament.
“I think we competed,” Blackstone Valley Prep coach Kevin Payette said. “We stuck with them for a long time. And it’s something we can learn from.”
The loss brought to an end a breakout season for the Pride. In its second year of Rhode Island Interscholastic League competition, the team went 15-3 in Division III and earned its way into the state tournament bracket with a play-in round victory over Woonsocket, a Division I team that - though it had some different personnel - lost to North Kingstown in last year’s title game.
“This is year six for us. Our first four were in the Coastal Prep League. In our third year, we were playing a couple of RIIL Division III teams. We played Mount St. Charles, who I think had five wins. Not a very strong D-III team and they worked us,” Payette said. “Right around that time, the talk was, ‘Should we join the Interscholastic League?’ And I said to my coaches, ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever win a game in the Interscholastic League.’ I wasn’t being negative. If that was a five-win team and they’re mopping the floor with us, are we going to be excited to win two games in this league? But we won seven or eight games last year, x f
tall15-3 this year, a playoff win - we’ve come a long, long way. We’re very proud of our guys to get here.”
North Kingstown, coming off a loss to Bishop Hendricken in the Division I championship game on Sunday, scored the game’s first seven points, but the Pride weathered the early storm to make it 13-6. Abdoulaye Sall and Jordan Mendes hit 3-pointers and Kalil Fofana hit a leaner on the break as the Pride moved within three points at 20-17.
North Kingstown threatened to pull away with a 10-0 burst, but
Photo by Chuck Nadeau / CN Photography
Fofana scored five points and Chris Rodriguez chipped in two for a 7-0 run. A layup at the first-half buzzer by Rodriguez-Gonzalez made it 4134 at the break.
“They’ve got a nice nucleus of young guys. They’re going to be good in the future,” North Kingstown coach Aaron Thomas said of the Pride. “They weren’t intimidated at all. I didn’t expect them to be after watching them go into Woonsocket the other night. I knew they were going to be ready to play.”
But the burst by the Skippers after the break was too much to overcome. NIck Sacchetti scored 13 points in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the second half. Geoff Coyne added two and Caleb Wagner scored three. Xavier Mendez provided the only points for Blackstone Valley Prep as the Skippers opened up a 59-37 lead. It all happened in just 3:11 of game time.
“When you play a really good team, if you’re a second late, you pay for it. If you don’t get a hand up, you pay for it. You’re not talking defensively, you pay for it,” Payette said. “Sometimes, in practice, when you say, ‘If you don’t do this, this happens,’ it doesn’t get through, and you saw it today. North Kingstown is really, really good. They run really good stuff, they shoot it really well and they’re very wellcoached.”
As impressive as the offensive show was, the Skippers also clamped down defensively, limiting the Pride to 26 points in the second half.
“We had a little discussion at halftime,” Thomas said. “We weren’t happy that we gave up 34 points at halftime. I didn’t think we were playing good defense – gave up way too many good looks. We fixed a few things at halftime. It was more about attitude and getting our hands on the ball, being active with hands. Very happy with the second half. A lot of guys contributed.”
Sacchetti finished with 31 points to lead all scorers. Mendez led a balanced Pride attack with 17 points. Rodriguez and Fofana scored nine each, with Sall and Jarell Jose Carlos getting eight apiece.