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Mixed results for Woodstock Academy Blue over weekend
The Woodstock Academy Blue boys’ prep basketball team knew it had some competition.
Blue coach Nick DeFeo had seen the Woodstock Academy Gold team just hold off North Carolina’s Combine Academy in the opener to the Power 5 Conference Tip Off tournament Nov. 9 at Woodstock Academy.
He was hoping his Blue squad could do the same Nov. 11.
It wasn’t to be.
Combine Academy posted a 97-78 win over the Centaurs at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
The Centaurs Blue squad did get a win over the weekend as it held off Covenant College Prep Nov. 10, 83-57.
A cold spell early in the first half hurt the Centaurs (3-1) against Combine Academy.
The visitors went on a 19-5 run highlighted by a trio of 3-pointers from Jovan Zelenbabe (11 points), Dejaun Horne and Kyree Brown to take a 17-point lead.
The Centaurs whittled that down to 12 when they answered with a nine-point run of their own powered by a pair of Darweshi Hunter 3-pointers.
Hunter, from Springdale, Ohio, and Kaleb Thornton (Bollingbrook, Ill.) led the Centaurs with 18 points apiece.
Combine Academy rebuilt the lead to 15 at the half, 49-34.
It went on to score 19 points in the first five minutes of the second half to go up by 23 and the Centaurs never recovered.
The Blue squad had got off to a slow start against Covenant College Prep.
The Centaurs only scored 33 points in the first 20 minutes.
“That’s how it typically has been so far,” Blue forward Jeff Planutis (Hazleton, Pa.) said. “We’re trying to work on that every day in practice. We just have to get over the hump.”
Planutis was not one of those who started slow.
He scored seven of his game-high 28 points in the first four minutes of the game.
“I was just trying to get off to a good start. I was rebounding and putting them back in. My jump shot hasn’t been falling lately so I just was doing what I could control and was trying to get to the rim,” Planutis said.
An 11-2 run early in the second half put Woodstock Academy up by 18 points and the visitors never got closer than 16 the remainder of the way.
Thornton was the only other player in double figures with 14.
The Centaurs Blue squad hosts Army Prep at 6 p.m. Nov. 14 in the Fieldhouse at Woodstock Academy.
The Blue squad is also scheduled to play at Hoosac School before taking a 12-day Thanksgiving break.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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