By Ron P. Coderre

Marianapolis Prep, under coach Andrew Vitale, enjoyed its best week of the season racking up three consecutive wins before dropping a heartbreaker to Tilton School.  Putnam Science Academy, the area’s hottest team, continued its winning ways picking up a pair of victories and raising its record to a gaudy 17-2.  Pomfret School, Hyde-Woodstock and Marianapolis II combined for a 1-5 week.

Woodstock Academy bounced back from its out-of-state loss to Putnam Vocational by taking out its revenge on an outmanned Montville team.  The Centaurs have now accomplished their first goal of the season – qualifying for the State Tournament.  Plainfield went one-and-one for the week, while Tourtellotte, Putnam and Killingly suffered through a winless week.

Golden Knights Moving

 in Right Direction

Marianapolis opened its week on the road at Hyde-Woodstock playing one of its best defensive efforts of the season.  The Golden Knights picked up an easy 55-30 win over the lethargic Wolfpack, who scored only 10 points in the first 16 minutes of play.  Devin Springfield (12 points) and Travis Descoteaux (11) were the leading scorers for the winners.  Kenny Grant with a sub-par 12 point performance was the lone double figure scorer for Hyde.

The Knights then traveled to Boston where they took the measure of Milton Academy 58-50 behind a double-double by Bobby Ahearn who had 15 points and 13 boards.  Eric Long added 13 for the winners.  MPS picked up another road win, beating Wilbraham & Monson 56-48 behind the play of Ahearn and Eric Murdock Jr. who tallied 13 points apiece.

The Golden Knights couldn’t take advantage of home cooking as they lost to perennial power Tilton School 62-48 in front of the home crowd.  Ahearn was once again the top scorer with 20 markers, while Eric Long chipped in 10 points for Marianapolis which appears headed in the right direction with a 7-6 record.

The Putnam Science Academy offensive machine continued to roll, picking up an 84-71 victory over Redemption Christian Academy and an 87-65 win over McDuffie School.  Balanced scoring was the key to both victories.  In the Redemption win five players reached double figures, led by Anthony “Bull” Durham with 21 points.  Other double digit scorers were Danny “Up tempo” Upchurch (11), Dalique Mingo and Chaise Daniels with 12 apiece and Jordan “Man Mountain” Butler 11.  Upchurch with 24 points was tremendous in the win over McDuffie, while Durham and Daniels had 10 each and Mingo produced 18 for the winners. 

Pomfret School lost a pair when it was beaten by Loomis Chaffee 70-54 and Suffield Academy 52-50.  The losses dropped the Griffins below .500 at 5-6.  Pomfret blew a big 14-point lead in its loss to Loomis Chaffee despite 17 points from Cam Winston and 14 apiece from Jeff Iyalekhue and Isaiah Henderson.

A valiant second half offensive effort fell short against Suffield as the Griffs lost by a mere two points.  Winston and Iyalekhue with 15 points each were the lone double-digit scorers for Pomfret.  The Griffs righted the ship with a 63-48 win over Canterbury School in the Hall of Fame Classic.  Winston (20) and Iyalekhue (16 & 12 rebounds) were once again Pomfret’s top guns as it leveled its record at 6-6.  Marianapolis II fell to 7-4 with losses to Oxford Academy (50-49) and Worcester Academy (59-55). 

Woodstock Qualifies

for State Tourney Play

After almost a week away from the hardwood, Woodstock Academy traveled to Montville and opened up the offensive flood gates on poor Montville, beating the Indians 91-65.  The Centaurs took a 35-14 first period lead and followed that up with 28 points in the second quarter to go off at intermission comfortably ahead 63-27.  Big Adam Converse had his best offensive varsity performance as he poured 25 points through the nets.  Long-range bomber Trent Peters and Will Bourgeois chipped in with 12 points apiece for the 10-2 Acads of coach Greg Smith.

Plainfield and Killingly got entangled in a donnybrook before the contest was finally settled with the Panthers emerging with a 51-48 home victory.  High scoring Ryan Pambuku led the Panthers with 15 points as his first two points of the evening gave him 1000 in his high school career.  Corey Anderson added 14 points for the winners while Will Robinson had 10.  Austin Taylor (16), Nick Hewitt (10) and James Saritelli (12) were in double figures for Killingly.

Plainfield let a halftime lead slip through its fingers as it was beaten 66-54 by Bacon Academy, dropping the Panthers to 5-6 overall and 3-1 in the ECC Medium Division.  Pambuku was the scoring leader for Plainfield with 22 points.

Killingly, which was a decided underdog to NFA, gave the Wildcats a scare before succumbing 52-45.  Saritelli (20) and Hewitt (18) combined for 38 of the Redmen’s 45 points.  Killingly is 6-5 overall and 2-2 in the ECC Medium Division.

Tourtellotte was beaten 70-63 despite a herculean 29-point performance by Kaevon Safford and 10 points from Shawn Houle.  The Tigers are struggling at 5-6 on the season and 1-3 in the ECC Small Division. Despite 16 point performances from the trio of Steve Dakai, Jordan Tetreault and Jacob Guertin, Putnam fell to 2-8 on the year as they lost to visiting Goodwin Tech 69-59 in a CSC confrontation.

Scoring Leaders: Ryan Pambuku – Plainfield - 22.3; Kaevon Safford – Tourtellotte – 21.1; Anthony Durham – Putnam Science Academy – 18.9; Kenny Grant – Hyde-Woodstock – 17.9; Nick Hewitt – Killingly – 15.6.

Three-point Leaders: Mike Jezierski – Tourtellotte – 38; Jalen Terry – Putnam Science Academy – 30; Kyle Menard – Putnam Science Academy – 28.

 

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