Varsity Girls Win
Only one game for the Putnam Science Academy Varsity Girls team this past week as they won in convincing fashion at home over Capital Prep Harbor 74-20. PSA’s Anna Doroshenko found her groove in the early going leading the Lady Mustangs with a game high 19 points. Nassarine Williams added 13 points in the rout for the 10-9 Mustangs. The Varsity Girls will play at home on Wednesday afternoon vs Redemption Christian Academy.
Boys’ Varsity 2 Hot
Putnam Science Academy’s Varsity 2 boys’ team has been red hot as of late. As in, real hot! The boys played host to Redemption Christian Academy early in the week and ran away with an 80-64 win behind Zach Boulay’s 22 points. Boulay added 11 rebounds and 6 assists after missing more than two weeks with a sprained right ankle. Amir Sanders was the high man finishing with 24 points and just missing a double-double with 9 rebounds. Putnam Science then hit the road for a Feb. 23 contest against St. Andrews and dominated, winning 81-49 improving to 17-6 and have won 8 of their last 9 games. This time it was 8th grader Travis Mangual who took over getting to the basket at will on his way to a 23-point afternoon. Pablo Perez would add 19 points and Zach Boulay had 15 points. The Mustangs play one final game at home Feb. 27 in a rematch against Redemption Christian Academy.
Varsity Drops Game
The Varsity Mustangs couldn’t rally back in their lone game of the week on the road as they would fall to 18-10 on the season with a 69-61 loss. In an in-state game versus St. Thomas More. Putnam Science Academy fell behind early and had to claw to get back in the game. Insert guard Jaiden Rivera. The 3-point specialist out of Oakland, Calif., came off the bench and caught fire. Rivera hit seven 3’s on his way to a career-high 31 points but the deficit was too much for the Mustangs to come back from. Rivera has been instant offense off the bench for Head Coach Dana Valentine throughout this season.
Prep Boys Rolling’
The #2 ranked Putnam Science Academy Prep Boys continue to find ways to win thanks to junior guard Hassan Diarra. The Mustangs went 2-0 on the week starting off with a local game versus St. Thomas More that saw PSA hold on for an 83-71 win. Russel Tchewa led the Mustangs with 19 points but it was Diarra who stole the show. Hassan’s last five games he has averaged more than 15 points per game and more than six rebounds per game playing at an elite level for the Mustangs. Demarr Langford Jr. stepped up as well collecting a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds to pull out the road win. Against Redemption Christian Academy, the Mustangs would pull away late to win 98-86. Diarra was again a factor leading the Mustangs with a game-high 26 points adding 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Langford posted back-to-back games with double-doubles recording 14 points and 10 rebounds. Russell Tchewa added 15 points and 5 rebounds and Abou Ousmane chipped in 12 points and 5 rebounds in the win. The Mustangs are 34-1.
Josh Sanchas
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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The Woodstock Academy Centaurs Gold prep basketball team went a little against the norm last week.
The Centaurs, generally fast starters, found themselves locked in a battle early with the Springfield Commonwealth Academy prep team.
But a run late in the first half ended all doubt and the Centaurs prevailed for the 34th time in 35 games last Wednesday with a 112-75 win over the Tornadoes at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
The Centaurs had the rest of the week off after a scheduled game with the Masters School was moved to this Tuesday (the game ended too late for this edition).
“We came out slow, warmed up slow and started out slow. We woke up and turned it up,” said guard T.J. Weeks of the game with SCA.
The two teams were tied at 30 when the Tornadoes took the lead on a fall away jumper by Josiah Marable (19 points) and a pair of free throws by Emmanuel Ferreras.
It’s not often when an opponent has owned the lead with 5:49 left in the first half against the Gold this season.
The Centaurs took notice and scored 29 of the next 34 points to own a 59-39 lead at the half.
Weeks was a big part of the surge.
The guard hit four of his eight 3-pointers in the run for the Centaurs.
Weeks finished with 37 points, his high as a member of the Centaurs, but not his career high as he did score 40 points as a senior in high school in Rhode Island 
“(Springfield Commonwealth) left me wide open so I just took my time, used my legs and finished them,” Weeks said of his long-range acumen. “I just found the open spots, my guys found me and I just hit ‘em,” Weeks said.
Weeks came into the game averaging about 15 ½ points per game for the Gold and has become one of the go-to guys for the Centaurs.
“When I’m scoring, it allows the bigs to get open, rebounds get open, the post looks open because my guy won’t help low when I’m scoring so there is room for everyone else to score,” Weeks said.
The Centaurs quickly extended the lead to 30 in the second half after a pair of Tre Williams buckets.
Woodstock Academy cruised to the win from there.
Weeks had 26 points in the first half and seven of those 3-pointers. He was also the leading scorer in the second half for the Centaurs with 11.
That equaled the output of both Preston Santos and Jacob Toppin who finished with 11 points each in the game.
Weeks got off to a slow start this season due to a battle with shin splints.
His current surge has started to increase the interest level from colleges.
It was the finish to a pair of good games for Weeks.
Weeks was dominant in the first half and Jacob Toppin picked it up in the second for the Woodstock Academy Gold prep basketball team when it downed Rocktop Basketball last Monday, 113-75, at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
“We were just having fun,” said Toppin, who finished with 24 points. “Coach (Tony Bergeron) told us at halftime just to have fun and not get hurt. That’s what we did.”
Woodstock Academy built a 19-point lead in the first 4 ½ minutes of the game against their Philadelphia-based opponents.
Weeks scored nine of his 20 points and Matt Cross added six of his 14 in that early run that saw the Centaurs score the first nine points and stretch it from there to a 23-4 advantage with 15:42 left in the first half.
That lead continued to swell and the Centaurs were comfortably ahead at the break, 66-36.
Bergeron went to the bench often in the second half with those who scored often in the first half yielding to others, including Toppin, in the second.
The 6-foot-6 player from Ossining, N.Y. scored all but two of his points in the second half. That production included four 3-pointers.
Tre Mitchell only scored six points but finished with 12 rebounds. Mikal Gjerde had eight caroms and Darion Jordan-Thomas added seven.
Santos was the only other player in double figures with 10.
“We’re playing very well together,” Toppin said. “We’ve been together for about five months now so we’re playing really good as a unit.”
Toppin admits though the season, as compared to high school, has been pretty long.
“I only played like 20 (games) in high school. It’s difficult, my body is breaking down. My shoulders hurt, my knees hurt, it’s a lot for me,” he said.
There are, fortunately for the Centaurs, only about 2 ½ weeks left of the season.
But Toppin said that’s bittersweet.
“I’m happy and I’m sad at the same time. I don’t want to leave my brothers. We’ve made a family here. I don’t want to leave anybody but I’m also happy because it has been a long season,” Toppin said.
Over the next couple of weeks, Toppin will also have another decision to make.
He has not decided where he will play next.
“I have a few offers and I’m looking to get a few more. I’m going to make my decision soon,” Toppin said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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Chase Anderson has been the catalyst for the Woodstock Academy boys’ basketball team all season.
Unfortunately, the Norwich Free Academy Wildcats took him away from the Centaurs Feb. 22 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I tournament semifinals.
As a result, the seventh-seeded Centaurs saw their hopes for an ECC championship game appearance at Mohegan Sun Arena come to an end with a 63-42 loss to third-seeded NFA.
The Wildcats put a box-and-one on Anderson and held him to just one point and just one shot in the game.
“It’s tough because when things go through (Anderson), things go well and it kind of feeds off in other areas. It just clogged us up in the middle. We tried to make some adjustments, some of them worked sometimes, some of them didn’t. I give credit to my guys. They kept trying, they kept fighting and working hard,” said Woodstock Academy coach Marty Hart.
Xavier Marquez was responsible for much of the work on Anderson who came into the game with a 19.3 point per game average.
“He works hard,” Hart said of Marquez. “He was right there, glued to him, and he did it efficiently and cleanly. He has both strength and speed and he’s pretty savvy.”
The Centaurs (10-11) hung with the Wildcats for the first quarter.
Luke Mathewson hit four of his six points in the game and Cole Hackett added a bucket to keep the Centaurs close at 8-7.
But NFA is also very good from beyond the 3-point arc and it displayed its long-range prowess early.
Nick Hay (20 points) hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with eight first quarter points and Mason Jackson added a trey to put the Wildcats on top at the end of the opening quarter, 13-7.
NFA rained down 3-pointers in the second quarter.
Nolan Molkenthin hit two and both Andrew Gromko and Hay hit one each in a 2:20 time span that expanded NFA’s lead to 27-9.
“We need six guys to cover a team that shoots it that well,” Hart said with a shake of his head. “They have great speed and length. We tried a lot of different combinations, and just had a hard time catching up to them sometimes.”
The Wildcats (16-6) also posed more issues defensively than just against Anderson. Few shots were uncontested and the ball was often doubled.
“It just throws a wrench in the whole system when you can’t get through things fluidly and you want guys to make decisions in quick, real time. (NFA) made a lot of mistakes defensively, but it can correct them with the length of Mason and the speed and athleticism of their other players,” Hart said.
The Wildcats led by 15 at the half and expanded it to 21 by the end of the fourth quarter.
Cole Hackett kept the Centaurs in the game in the second half when he scored 14 of his 18 points in the game.
Woodstock Academy was coming off a strong effort against second-seeded E. Lyme in the quarterfinals.
The Centaurs knocked off the Vikings, 56-42, in East Lyme to advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.
“We were ecstatic after that win,” Mathewson said. “Everyone was jumping up-and-down in the locker room. We went in as crazy underdogs, just like last year in the ECC tournament (when the Centaurs advanced to the Division II championship game) as the seventh seed having to face the two seed. We just went in, played team basketball, and it worked out in the end.”
The Centaurs played well defensively against the Vikings (14-7) in the middle quarters, holding East Lyme to single-digit scoring.
Woodstock Academy fell behind 12-10 in the first quarter but rallied to take a 22-18 lead at the break.
The Centaurs increased the lead to double digits by the end of the third quarter.
“It was a defensive game. Everyone worked hard together,” Mathewson said. “Late in the third quarter, we went on a solid run to break away.”
Anderson finished with 20 points, four steals and three assists to lead the Centaurs.
Hackett added 12 points and completed as double-double effort with 10 rebounds. Aidan Morin contributed 10 points, three assists and a pair of blocks.
The Centaurs were pretty happy with how the first half went last Tuesday night.
The second half? Not so much.
As a result, Woodstock Academy fell to the Waterford Lancers, 76-51, at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
The loss meant the Centaurs finished with a 5-3 record in Division II of the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
The Centaurs fell behind the Lancers in the first quarter on Tuesday.
Waterford (19-1, 8-0 ECC Division II) led only 7-6 after Morin hit a bucket with 3:48 left in the quarter.
But the Lancers rattled off the next seven points, four of them by guard J.J. Brennan (20 points), to take the 14-6 lead.
Aaron Johnson got hot, however, in the second quarter. The senior guard launched six 3-pointers, the first five went in.
He also scored on a traditional three-point play off the fast break to give him 18 points for the quarter.
“Aaron Johnson gave us a big lift when he got hot. That really picked up the slack. We’re balanced; we try to use all the guys we have where we can use them. I was really pleased with the first half,” Hart said.
The offense got the Centaurs back in range as they trailed only 30-28 at the half and the defense kept them there.
“We had good execution and we were able to locate their shooters,” Hart said.
That same formula did not exist in the second half.
“They turned up the pressure and we didn’t handle it,” Hart said.
The two teams exchanged baskets in the first minute but five turnovers put Woodstock Academy behind the eight ball.
The Lancers turned those miscues into baskets and broke out to a 42-32 lead.
Hart did all he could, calling a trio of time outs to try and stem the tide.
“We handled it a little better (after the first time out), and then it got a little harder, and had to call a couple of more time outs just to try and slow things down. They’re a versatile team; they have a lot of length and speed. I have to credit our guys for fighting hard,” Hart said.
After the Lancers went up by 10, their point guard Kenny Hill (20 points) found the range as well and hit a pair of 3-pointers for Waterford to put them up 12.
The two teams essentially traded baskets the remainder of the way in the third quarter but the Centaurs trailed by 16, 59-43, going into the final period and never got closer than 14 the rest of the way.
Johnson finished with 25 points and was the only Centaur in double figures.
Anderson was held five points although he did pull down 10 boards.
Anderson was under the weather and had to take frequent breaks in the game.
“He’s a leader for us, a rebounder, a facilitator and then we get scoring from him. When he is under the weather, he still wants to give it all he can, but there just wasn’t gas in the tank. We tested it a couple of times and shut him down early,” Hart said.
The Centaurs are not done with the regular season.
They still had a game with E.O. Smith Feb. 25. The game ended too late for this edition.
“It’s strange,” Hart agreed having a regular season game still to play in the midst of the ECC tournament. “That game got shifted due to weather and then shifted again. It’s in an odd spot, but it’s an out-of-conference game and we’re looking forward to playing it. We had to put it somewhere because it counts toward the (state) tournament. We did the best we could with what we had at the time and it’s tough when weather stacks you up.”

Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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