Saints move past defeat to Hendricken
PAWTUCKET – Veteran head coach Tom Sorrentine has delivered an elementary message to his St. Raphael Academy troops before they face Classical High in the first round of the R.I. Open Tournament, slated for 5:30 tonight at Rhode Island College’s Murray Center.
In essence, it goes like this: Forget about the 63-54 loss to top-ranked Hendricken in the state Division I tourney championship game on Sunday, and look ahead.
“We’ve just got to move on, it’s that simple,” he stated of his second-seeded Saints, who will carry a 20-4 overall record into the contest. “Hendricken was the better team, and now we’re going to the state tournament, the true state tournament. Now, everything is on the line, and this is the one we really want to get.
“When we won it all the first year they did this, in 2011, we did horribly in the D-I tournament, with Coventry knocking us out in the first round, but we came back to win the Open,” he added.
“This year, we went to the finals and lost, so we just need to regroup, reignite our engines.”
Familiarity should help when SRA battles the Purple, seeded 15th at 9-13 overall. Sorrentine and Co. collected a 62-49 regular-season triumph back on Feb. 16, but had to survive a difficult 60-57 win during the D-I quarterfinals.
“It should help, but it can hurt, too,” he said. “They played us tough the last time.”
Classical’s strength stems from several solid hoopsters, among them senior forward/tricaptain Malik Chase; junior guard Vincent Welch; sophomore point guard Kenny Hill; classmate and center Amidou Kaba; and 10th-grader/forward Aniekan Okon.
“Chase is their leading scorer, averaging 19 points per game, and he’s got 32 three-pointers on the season,” Sorrentine noted. “He’s also been to the line 111 times, which makes him dangerous. He can get you into foul trouble; he’s also a kid who can shoot the ball fro the outside but drive to the hoop, so we’ve got to pay attention to him.
“Welch was their leading three-point shooter with 52 on the year, and Hill is their point,” he continued. “He averaged nine points a game, but that doesn’t include all the steals and assists he racked up. He also finished 50-of-60 from the floor (an uncanny 83.3 percent), which is pretty good shooting.
“They also have a couple of big kids in Kaba and Okon. Kaba is 6-6, so he’s got some size and is a really good rebounder, and Okon is 6-3. We’re going to have to pound the glass if we want to beat them.”
That should come from senior forwards Trevante Jones and Willie Washington, both of whom can rebound with virtually anyone in the state. As for scoring, Sorrentine will rely on fellow senior co-captain and guard Peter Wilson; junior guard Jay-Juan Hayes; classmate/forward Huascar Beato; and junior guard Zaheer Santiago.
“We just have to do our jobs and play smart,” Sorrentine stated. “We can’t make crazy mistakes like turning the ball over, and we have to be consistent.”