Quakers too much for Cumberland

PROVIDENCE – Cumberland High head coach George Coderre indicated he knew when his girls' schedule came out weeks ago that his team's away dates with always-talented St. Raphael Academy and Moses Brown on Thursday-Friday, Jan. 1415, would be tremendously difficult.

He didn't know how much so until after his Clippers suffered a crazy, triple-overtime 58-57 loss to the Saints.

Less than 24 hours later, the unbeaten Quakers remained such, taking advantage of Cumberland's fatigue, leaping to a quick 13-1 opening cushion and coasting to a 53-26 Division II triumph in their mammoth, barracks-type gymnasium on Friday night.

“My honest feeling is we faced a very, very good team with zero preparation,” stated head coach George Coderre after his crew fell to 6-2 in league action (6-6 overall). “We went three overtimes with St. Ray's, where we lost by one, and we were just gassed. With the amount of energy we expended, and against a good team like that, it's a recipe for disaster.

“We couldn't expect to come in here and expect to compete, but that's hardly an excuse,” he added. “We're not good enough – yet – to be able to handle that kind of situation.”

Sophomore center Oluchi Ezemma paced the hosts (8-0 league) with a typical “double-double,” one that included 23 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks. No one else notched double digits, though junior Victoria Caruolo contributed eight points; senior tricaptain Izzy Robinson four points and seven boards; and sophomore Jess Rylander a trey and seven assists.

MB registered the first six points in the first 1:45 on a Caruolo trey, then her conventional three-point play, and Ezemma netted the next seven points to give it a 13-1 cushion with 11:24 remaining.

The Quakers' defense didn't allow its initial field goal until the 11:06 mark, but that sparked a 13-9 flurry over the ensuing 7:31; when Sydney Tilton hit a baseline jumper with 3:35 left, the Clippers trailed by only seven at 22-15.

Thanks to junior Maddie McKenna's hook with 1:45 remaining, CHS again sliced the deficit to seven at 24-17, but Ezemma landed a hook off a stellar in-bounds pass and senior Maddie Graul a layin off her own steal to lift MB to a 28-17 lead at the break.

Cumberland yielded 15 turnovers in the opening stanza, as opposed to six for the hosts, though the inaccurate passing would come back to haunt it.

Cumberland nevertheless didn't need long to whittle the deficit back to eight at 28-20, courtesy of a McKenna putback and a Walton freebie, though the Quakers followed with a 12-0 during a 4:23 rally to extend its advantage to 40-20. Their defense also aided in the cause, as it allowed just nine visitors' points over the final 16 minutes.

“That's what we wanted to do – jump out fast to a lead; not many kids play three overtimes and play the next day,” noted MB veteran mentor Laurie Center. “We talked about them probably being tired, but that they were so well-coached and were so athletic. I told our girls that they were going to play hard for every single second and not give up, and they didn't.

“We wanted to be disciplined and play transition, up-tempo basketball, and be able to run some quick hitters as well, and we did with Izzy,” she added. “She's like a power forward running the offense, so she did a nice job. That's where Izzy really stepped it up … Still, Cumberland is so well-disciplined on offense, I thought our defense was getting tired.”

Stated Coderre: “When we were down 13-1, it was like we were still in the 'O-zone' after (Thursday night). All of that sounds like a lot of excuses, but that's not what I'm trying to say. MB is that good, and we're not good enough to compete without sufficient preparation. We still have to work on holding onto the basketball; 27 turnovers is way too many.”

To its credit, MB yielded only 10.