Champions, times two
Begin nets 22 points in 58-45 win over Falcons
Basketball teams from Woonsocket and Burrillville powered their way to Unified titles on Sunday afternoon.
WARWICK — After manufacturing an outing for the ages Sunday afternoon, Woonsocket High senior student-athlete Alex Begin relaxed on his team bench inside Hendricken High’s McNally Gymnasium awaiting the presentation of his gold medal. Suddenly, though, he became animated. “This is great!” Begin remarked after a leap that signified his joy at a 22-point performance, one that helped clinch for the Villa Novans the R. I. Division II Unified Basketball Tournament championship with a 58-45 dismissal of Cranston West. “This is
my second time (winning a state title). I went to Tolman in 2014, and we won it all then, too.”
When asked if he was surprised he and his teammates accomplished such a feat, he simply grinned, “No, I can believe it (because) we’re a good team. We’re state champions!”
He never had the chance to sit down again, as his name was called to accept the gold. He sprinted over to head coach Nancy Giordano, who presented it to each of her beloved Novans.
In Unified hoop, there aren’t many rules in which officials have to abide. It’s a wide-open type of sport where traveling, double-dribbling and the like are standard. Teams consist predominantly of two partners and three athletes with special needs on the floor at one time, and partners may not score more than half of a squad’s total point output.
Opponents play two 16-minute halves, and refs may call a foul if the situation warrants it, but those are few and far between. The ruleof-thumb is for partners to pass to special athletes so they can feel the elation of dropping a jumper or creating a steal.
“They’ve worked so hard for so long; I’m happy for them all,” the mentor stated after a group of parents and well-wishers corralled their kids for memorable team photos. “They love this game and they love their teammates. It’s so obvious. The three partners we have do an amazing job with our athletes.
“Our partners do not shoot, they do not score,” she continued. “They also don’t play defense against other athletes, only opposing partners. That’s our school rule. We’re one of the 10 schools statewide who started competing in Unified back in 2010, and it’s been that way ever since. It’s all about the athletes.”
Besides Begin’s superlative effort, sophomore Greg Tracy canned 17 points, senior Benny Grayson six and classmate Jamar Abney (a 6-foot-2, 290-pound mountain of a center) six points while snaring 14 boards. On the other side of the ball, juniors Rena Berthelette and Sean Kell, freshman Colin Jameison and seniors Eric Prince, Rose Wauczinski and Destiny Parenteau all exhibited stellar defense.
“The key with this team is that nobody wants to shoot; everyone wants to pass the ball and set someone else up,” noted Giordano, whose club snatched its first Unified basketball crown since 2013. “It’s all about their teammates, though sometimes they’re too unselfish.
“Take Jamar; he’s usually one of the biggest guys on the floor, but he never leads the team in scoring,” she added. “Both he and Greg have tremendous chemistry on the floor, so we try to keep them together because they always know where the other’s going to be. They follow their own shots, and – if they miss – they’ll attack for the rebound.”
Offered Abney himself: “This is amazing! I can’t believe it right now. This is one of the toughest games we’ve played this season. Cranston West is really good at rebounding and shooting. They never gave up, and (displayed) great sportsmanship.
“I pass it a lot because my teammates are open,” he continued. “I wanted other people to score for us. I know they can do it. We did this as a team. It feels awesome.”
Pacing the Falcons were senior Garen Megrdichian (22 points) and junior Thomas Marcello (10).
The contest opened with a pair of deadlocks, the last at 4-4 with 2:30 elapsed in the initial session, but Tracy canned a fallaway jumper, then a finger-roll, Abney a running one-hander in the lane and Grayson a fastbreak layup in a span of 2:28 to lift the Novans to a 12-4 lead.
The Falcons, however, began to take advantage of Woonsocket’s sloppy play. With 3:03 remaining before the break, Marcello landed a pretty, one-hand trey to slice the deficit to a scant three (20-17).
WHS nevertheless fashioned an 8-0 flurry, courtesy of Tracy’s nine-footer, Abney’s jumper, Begin’s rim-around bucket and 17footer to give the Novans the 28-17 advantage.
They extended that lead to 35-22 following a Tracy three-point bomb with 11:51 remaining in regulation, and he immediately delivered to the crowd a fist to the air and a high-five to Abney.
Exactly three minutes later, CW’s Megrdichian hit a short, baseline jumper to cut it to 37-30. With the 8-2 run, the Falcons were back in business. The back-and-forth surges continued, with Megrdichian nailing a short bucket to slice it to 48-42 with 3:18 left.
Giordano’s group assembled a 10-3 flurry over the remaining time to post the well- earned triumph.
“No, I don’t have to do this, but I play basketball with special-needs kids all the time, like in parks and stuff,” said sophomore partner David McGee, who dished out a significant amount of assists to his pals all year long. “I went to one of their practices at the beginning of the school year, and we got so close, I wanted to try and help them win a state championship.
“I wanted to help the community and our school, our team,” he added. “Some of these people were my friends long before I joined. This means everything to me. This was my lone goal with this team.”
Mentioned Grayson: “It feels really good to win. They were a pretty tough team. I’d be dribbling, and they’d try to take the ball away from me, but that’s OK. We won. This is awesome!”