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It was the little things that got the Woodstock Academy Gold prep basketball team March 8.
“I think it was our own errors. Death by a thousand paper cuts,” said Woodstock Academy coach Jacque Rivera. “We never made the biggest mistake but they all multiplied.”
As a result, the Centaurs Gold Prep basketball team lost for a third time this season to Springfield Commonwealth Academy Blue, 97-79, in the Power 5 Conference AAA tournament championship game.
The Gold prep basketball team’s season isn’t over, however.
The Centaurs (28-7) play in the National Prep Championship this week at Connecticut College in New London.
Woodstock Academy played in a first-round game at 11 a.m. on Tuesday against DME Academy and, with a win, took on Scotland Campus at 6 p.m. also on Tuesday (the results were too late for this edition) for the right to go into the quarterfinal round on Wednesday.
“Any road traveled in the athletic world is a tough one,” Rivera said.
To win a national title, however, the Centaurs have a lot of work to do, namely, something no team has ever done in the prep tournament.
“Someone will do it someday. Somebody will win five games in three days (in the National Prep championship tournament), somebody will do it. Why not us?,” Rivera said.
The Centaurs will have to play a little better than they did against SCA Blue. The game was back-and-forth through the first 10 minutes of the first half.
But Springfield Commonwealth put together a 10-point run to go up by 11, 27-16, with 8:41 left in the half.
Dyondre Dominguez (18 points) and Quran McPherson (14) broke that string with a pair of 3-pointers.
Unfortunately, that was the exception more than the rule for the Centaurs who made only 10-of-34 from beyond the arc.
Rivera attributed that to not playing together. The offensive rebounds were a large problem, according to Ronnie DeGray.
The Centaurs trailed by 10 at the half, 48-38, but closed that gap early in the second half.
DeGray scored the first three points of the second half and Dominguez had a three-point play of his own to cut the deficit to six, 52-46, just 3:15 into the half.
But Springfield Commonwealth answered with the next six points to re-establish the double-digit lead.
The Centaurs again cut it to seven when DeGray, who finished with a game-high 29 points, hit a 3-pointer to make it 60-53 with 12:20 left.
“Ronnie played well with his 29 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals. I thought he competed on the backboard and made shots,” Rivera said.
SCA answered with a 10-2 run to go up, 70-55, with 9:55 to play and they never led by less than double digits the remainder of the way.
The Centaurs made the championship game with a 95-63 win over Redemption Christian Academy in a Power 5 Conference semifinal March 7.
Four players scored in double figures for the Centaurs led by Dominguez with 16 points. DeGray added 15 points, McPherson had 14 and Quinton McElroy 10 in the win.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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