Mendes, Mendez lead BVP past Pats
LINCOLN — Jordan Mendes remembers scoring just one point in the Blackstone Valley Prep boys basketball team’s playoff defeat last season. The Pride junior forward vowed to have a bigger impact this postseason.
Teamed with dominant senior forward Xavier Mendez, Mendes and the Pride reached the precipice of the school’s first RIIL division final of any kind when they made the short trip across the Blackstone River Wednesday night to take on undefeated Davies Tech in the Division III semifinals.
In a battle of contrasting styles, the deliberate post-heavy Pride imposed their will on a Patriot squad that excelled this season by turning games into track meets and using turnovers to score easy baskets in transition. Mendes and Mendez each netted a gamehigh 34 points as the Pride secured a wireto-wire 83-59 victory over No. 1 Patriots as Gaskin Alumni Hall.
“I put the work in because this whole quarantine it was hard to play ball and I found a way every day to play outside,” Mendes said. “We were always working. I just wanted to get better because last year I only had one point and we lost in the playoffs by one point [to St. Patrick], so I just knew from that moment we had to take the whole thing.”
“That Davies team was undefeated and they’re very quick,” Mendez said. “The like to move the ball and [1,000-point scorer] Raheim [Rainey] can score. They’re going to push the ball and attack and I’m glad we were able to contain that. I’m proud of everybody. This all starts in practice in the offseason and it has gotten us to this point.”
Blackstone Valley Prep (8-4 Division III) is in the Division III final in the program’s third year in the RIIL. Prior to joining the RIIL, the Pride won the 2018 Coastal Prep title and the only current player who was on the court for that title game is Mendez, who has left an indelible mark on the fledgling program with more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
The Pride will play either No. 2 Times2 STEM Academy or No. 3 West Warwick in Saturday’s title game at noon at Rhode Island College’s Murray Center.
“I never thought we’d be doing this,” Mendez said after producing game-high 22 rebounds. “We tested the waters in our first season in the RIIL, but we realized it was going to take some time to be successful, but we were glad we were here. We’ve worked our butts every season and I’m glad we’re here.”
Davies Tech (9-1 Division III) a team-high 25 points from Isaiah Gonsalves, while Rainey hit five 3-pointers and scored 15 points in his final game for a program that hadn’t been in the playoffs in 18 years. How far have the Pats come in Rainey’s four years? They won just one game in his first two seasons in Lincoln before producing the school’s first undefeated regular season.
“We just didn’t play our tempo, it was slow the whole game,” Davies Tech coach Bob Morris said. “We were just a step behind all night and couldn’t transition well. We had a few moments where we did it, but we just were a step behind too often. We knew Xavier was a beast coming into this game and he’s a great kind on top of it. We knew he was going to get his.”
Mendes, who had a double-double with 13 rebounds to go along with his 34 points, and senior Daniel Garcia hit 3-pointers in the opening three minutes to help the Pride score the game’s first 10 points. Rainey and Jean Preira tried to keep the hosts in the game, but the Pride took a 10-point lead after one quarter.
The second quarter was all about Mendez and Mendes. The duo combined to score all 19 of the Pride’s points in the quarter to build a 14-point lead at halftime. While Mendez did most of his work in the paint, Mendes hit three first-half 3-pointers to score a game-high 19 points at the break.
“Jordan’s been good since his freshman year, but he’s just had guys ahead of him,” BVP coach Kevin Payette said. “Some of this is getting an opportunity, but he’s difficult to coach in the sense of saying ‘Jordan, good shot. Or, Jordan, bad shot.’ You can’t micromanage him because then he overthinks it. You just have to let him fly. Is he going to take a few bad shots? Probably. Is he going to make three that are very, very good for us? Yes.”
Junior Xavier Lara made back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Pride open up a 22-point lead in the third quarter, but the visitors started to get a little sloppy with the ball an Rainey, Preira and Gonsalves helped the Patriots cut their deficit to just 12 (60-48) just 48 seconds into the final quarter.
Just when it seemed the Patriots were going to make things difficult on the Pride, Mendez and Mendes brought their team home. Mendes scored 11 points in the final seven minutes, while Mendez added 10 to send the Pride back across the Blackstone with a statement victory.
“I’m so proud of [Mendes] because last year he didn’t get all that much playing time, but he was putting up numbers when he was in,” Mendez said. “He’s stepped up as a starter and I’m happy for him.”
“Can you believe it,” Payette said. “To come from the Coastal Prep and [Mendez] as a senior going to the Division III final is just unbelievable.”