Ahmad Jeffries found the range Feb. 24.
The Woodstock Academy Blue prep basketball team guard hit six 3-pointers against the Knox School on Long Island.
The last was the biggest.
His long-range jumper with 40 seconds left lifted the Centaurs to the 81-80 win.
Jeffries finished with 26 in the contest and Ty Mosley added 17 in the win which gave the Blue squad a split of its weekend overnight trip to New York.
The Centaurs (27-8) fell to Upper Room Christian Academy, 83-77, on Saturday night and saw their 10-game win streak come to an end.
Jeff Planutis scored 21 points in the loss while Siddiq Canty added 15.
Earlier in the week, it was a little playground basketball for the Centaurs last Wednesday at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
Clearly the better team, the Centaurs rolled to a 95-55 win over the Springfield Commonwealth Regional team.
“It’s tough to play the way we want to play the whole game even though we can do what we want and score how we want. We just have to stay focused and do what we do,” Planutis said.
The Centaurs scored the first 12 points of the game thanks to Mosley, who celebrated his 19th birthday, with a pair of 3-pointers early and Planutis added a couple of baskets.
Balanced scoring throughout the first half by the Centaurs led to a 44-23 advantage at the break.
“We just wanted to come out and establish that lead quickly and keep that lead the whole game,” Planutis said.
The big lead meant the Centaurs could afford to have a little fun and they took advantage by showing off some of their best dunks.
A windmill by Canty was the highlight but he had another and Planutis added a couple of slams.
“It was a lot of fun to watch, Ty also had a couple. It felt really good,” Planutis said of the dunk fest.
Planutis finished with 14 points and Mosley 12.
Kruno Macner, like Macner does, got hot in the second half from long distance. He put up four 3-pointers in the second half and finished with a team-high 20 points.
Some of the post-grad team members will be leaving shortly after the conclusion of the season, Planutis will not be among them.
“I’m not leaving in March. I won’t be leaving until April or so after I decide where I’m going,” Planutis said. “I’ve liked being here a lot. The first couple of weeks were hard, being away from home, but these past couple of months, time has been flying and we’re all such good friends now.”
If anything, leaving Woodstock Academy might be a little difficult.
It wasn’t quite to the level of the NBA All-Star game on the Sunday before which produced 342 points.
But the Woodstock Academy Blue prep and Rocktop Basketball teams produced more than their share of points on President’s Day Monday at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
The two teams combined for 224 points with the Centaurs walking away with the 123-101victory over their Philadelphia-based opponents.
Canty admitted that he had never played in a game where the two teams combined to score so many points.
In another odd occurrence, the Centaurs were also playing the same team from Rocktop that had just finished playing the Gold prep team.
That meant 80 minutes of basketball in about 2 ½ hours for the opponents.
“That’s really tough,” Canty said. “I was watching them in the stands thinking, ‘Man, it’s going to suck because we both press’. The Gold team is way longer. They could barely dribble the ball up the court and then they play us and we play with more intensity. It was tough for them,” Canty said.
Canty made it even worse early.
The 6-foot-1 guard from Tampa, Fla. hit four 3-pointers in the first 4:03 of the game to help the Centaurs build an early, 16-9, lead.
“It was chippy so I kind of got a little competitive. I just wanted to win,” Canty said.
Canty finished with 27 points and added another 3-pointer in the second half, doing a pretty good impression of his teammate from the Gold squad, T.J. Weeks.
“I was watching T.J. in the first game and he was doing his thing. He even had his (air) guitar out,” Canty said with a laugh.
It did take the Blue team a little longer to shake Rocktop.
Although Rocktop never got the lead, it did tie the game at 33 on a 3-pointer by R.J. Ameri.
Planutis scored eight of his 21 points in the closing minutes of the first half to put the Centaurs up, 59-45.
The Centaurs extended it to 20 when Isaiah Jones (24 points) hit a four free throws in a row, two due to a technical called on the Rocktop bench, to put Woodstock Academy up, 75-55.
The two teams essentially traded buckets from there out with Rocktop’s coming almost exclusively from Ishmael Waldron who finished with a game-high 41 points.
“We had a run of losses, but we came back, started fighting again and got more wins. We’re just waiting on the (Power 5 conference) playoffs right now and we’re going to try and carry this run into the championship,” Canty said.

Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

.
 

Putnam Science Academy’s soccer team has had plenty of first-year success. After completing its first season as a program with a 12-1-2 record and after a few month lay-off, the Mustangs were back in action out in Pennsylvania for an exposure tournament. PSA played tough in the first game going up against the Ukrainian Nationals Club that ended in a loss (0-2). The Ukrainian team took the lead in the early going capitalizing on a Mustang penalty to score a goal. They would then close the match out on a free kick to seal the victory.
Putnam Science Academy would get revenge in the second go-round.
Game two against the Ukrainian National Club saw PSA pull out a 3-2 win thanks to a well-balanced team performance. Jorge Mendo got the Mustangs on the board in the first then Angel Bermudo would find the back of the net in the second half. After being tied at 2 and headed into the second half, Boadi Augustine delivered the nail in the coffin with a goal to give the Mustangs the eventual win.
The Mustangs were pushed to their limit conditioning wise later Feb. 24 with four games on the docket. The Mustangs would finish winless (0-2-2).
PSA started off the first game against Penn Fusion with a tie after Angel Bermudo scored a solo goal and Matheus Reis added a second goal to force the tie. The offense would slow down in the second game losing to PDA Rossi (0-2). Rossi would pull away after a free kick goal and a penalty kick to seal it. A break in between had Putnam Science take the field in a rematch with Penn Fusion but once again the offense would go cold. Fusion shut out the Mustangs in similar fashion to PDA Rossi with a free kick and penalty kick.
PSA’s offense woke up in the fourth and final game but walked away with a 2-2 tie versus PDA Rossi. The Mustangs trailed early but would rally scoring two unanswered goals to force the tie.
Head Coach Ivan Damulira would have liked to have walked away with wins but he was pleased with what he saw throughout the weekend. “We played very hard,” he said.  “Our guys had to dig deep. Playing four games in one day and racking up well over 200 minutes of soccer can be a difficult task for anyone let alone high school kids.” The first-year head coach at PSA added, “This was a learning experience for these guys. Those are talented clubs that we played against and we had impressive battles. I’m happy with our play.”  Putnam Science will be playing in another tournament facing Bridgeport FC and the Boston Bolts next weekend.
Josh Sanchas
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

.
 

All State
Austin Desrosiers of Putnam was named All-State First Team for Ellis Technical High School. Austin, a junior, led the team to the State Tournament this season, with 19 goals and 15 assists. Left to right: Head Coach Drew Mizak, Austin Desrosiers, Assistant Coach Jay Hardell. Courtesy photo.

.