Academy pg 1 12-7-17
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WOODSTOCK — The Woodstock Academy Gold prep basketball team, the top prep team in the nation, according to the National Prep Hoops website, raised its record to 10-0 Dec. 4 with a 105-72 win over Masters School of Simsbury at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
“It’s a good start. We’ve just got to keep pushing. From now on, every game we play, it’s 0-0. It doesn’t matter what our record is. We have to come to play every single game,” said 6-foot, 9-inch center Tre Mitchell.
That’s especially true because of the No. 1 ranking.
“There is a lot of pressure. Coach (Tony Bergeron) tells us every game that we have a target on our backs. We’re going to get every team’s best shot,” added forward Jeameril Wilson.
The Centaurs let Masters stay with them for about the first half of the first half.
Up just 23-17 following a 3-pointer by Benjamin Eke (16 points) for Masters, the Centaurs quickly countered.
Luis Rodriguez (9 points) hit a 3-pointer of his own. After a Masters’ basket, Woodstock Academy scored seven straight points, five by point guard Jakigh Dottin.
The lead continued to grow with Wilson (11 points) taking a nice pass from Dibaji Walker to put the Centaurs up, 46-27, with 3:34 left in the first half.
“Coach Told us to come out strong and step on the gas early and that’s what we did (Monday),” Wilson said.
Woodstock Academy owned a 56-38 lead at the half.
Six early points by Mitchell pushed the lead to 30 points early in the second half.
Mitchell led the Centaurs with 15 points as everyone who played, scored.
“This was just our second game back from break so it was a little sloppy at first, but we played well together. Those who came in off the bench did really well too,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell, ever since he dominated at the National Prep Showcase at Albertus Magnus prior to the Thanksgiving break, has been getting plenty of looks from colleges.
Mitchell has been offered by the University of Tennessee, Georgia Tech and has also been in contact with schools such as Butler and the University of Pittsburgh.
But Mitchell is not in any haste to make a decision.
“It’s exciting, but I still have another year and a lot of work to do,” Mitchell said.
Blue squad back at .500
Woodstock Academy Blue prep basketball coach Nick DeFeo called Sunday’s 77-69 win over Lincoln Prep “the best win of the year so far”.
“The guys played well. Everyone shot the ball well. We rebounded, finally,” DeFeo said with a laugh.
The victory came in the New England versus Canada tournament at MacDuffie School in Granby, Mass., over the weekend.
E.J. Dambreville led the way with 23 points.
“He’s starting to come around and he’s shooting the ball much better,’ DeFeo said of the forward who recently signed a National Letter of Intent to play at Florida Southern. “He went through a lull where he wasn’t shooting the ball well from the outside, got in a funk, but he hit 13 3’s in the last three games so he’s opening it up a little bit.”
Center Alex Illic tossed in 21 and Danny Dade contributed 10.
The win forged a split for the Blue team in the tournament.
Dec. 2, the Blue squad fell to Mississauga, 72-67. Dambreville led the Centaurs with 19 points while Gedi Juozapaitis put down 14 points and Rob Kralicek 13.
The split means the Centaurs are back at the break-even mark at 5-5.
“I guess I’m all right with that. It’s where we’re at. You can’t look back. We have to keep moving forward and we have an opportunity in these next few games to get to a winning record,” DeFeo said.
The Woodstock Academy Gold squad was originally scheduled to play Mississauga, but that task fell to the Blue team when the Bill Crothers School failed to show for the tournament.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director