Quakers overwhelm Raiders
No. 13 Shea ends superb season with loss to Moses Brown
PROVIDENCE – Maybe Shea High head coach John Lickert would be wise to petition to have his team start games with a couple minutes subtracted from the clock.
As silly as that may sound, the Raiders in this most recent two-game stretch have done their best work after the pregame jitters have subsided. Unfortunately, the long climb out of a deep hole is only just beginning.
Fourth-seeded Moses Brown jumped out to a commanding 14-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 52-30 decision over No. 13 Shea in the Sweet 16 portion of the Rhode Island girls’ basketball open state tournament at Rhode Island College’s Murray Center on Wednesday night. The Quakers advance to play No. 5 Bay View.
Much like last Saturday’s Division III champi- onship game to Wheeler, the Raiders started off slow before somewhat regrouping and showing the crowd why they’ve enjoyed the season they’ve had. Against Moses Brown, Shea whittled a 27-point lead in the first half down to 16 in the blink of an eye, which was all the proof that Lickert required when he talked to his girls in the huddle.
The other team may have gotten the jump on you, but there’s no reason to believe they’re invincible.
“We have problems scoring at times and when you come out flat like that, it’s tough,” Lickert said. “We did settle down and started to play with them.”
Victoria Matson led three Moses Brown players in double figures with 15 points while Aluchi Ezemma added 14. Ashley Torres came off the bench to swish 11 points on three 3-pointers for the Raiders while Yasmine Santos netted 10 points.
It took a while for Shea to find its bearings. The Raiders opened the game with four straight turnovers and five over a six-possession span. The Division I Quakers feasted on their mistake-prone opponent, which at times struggled to advance the ball across the midcourt court, and as a result scored the game’s first 14 points.
“We were standing around,” Lickert sighed. “At times we didn’t make it tough for them.”
Shea’s first hoop came four minutes in as Santos got a layup to drop. The success proved fleeting as the Quakers ripped off a 15-0 run to take a commanding a 29-2 lead with under five minutes.
Given the game’s lop-sided nature, it qualified as a pleasant/unexpected surprise to see Shea score on multiple possessions in a row. A hoop down low by Santos began the Raiders’ best stretch of the evening – an 11-0 run that also included two 3-pointers by Torres and a hoop-and-harm sequence by Torres. What set that particular offensive stretch apart was that the ball movement was crisp rather than sticking in one player’s hands, which was the problem when Moses Brown bolted out to a big lead.
“We got the ball into the post, did some good things, and made some shots,” Lickert said.
Any hope of the Raiders inching closer before halftime died when Ezemma scored on a putback and later off one of the 14 turnovers the Raiders committed in the opening half. The Raiders opened the second half with back-toback baskets behind Denesha Lomba and Torres, but the Quakers pushed the lead back up to 20 points, which is where the lead stood at halftime.
Looking ahead, the future appears to be bright for the Raiders led by a core featuring Jenna Merhi (freshman), Lomba (sophomore), Santos (freshman), Torres (sophomore).