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Prep Basketball Senior Day
Members of the Woodstock Academy Gold and Blue prep basketball teams celebrated Senior Day. Dyson Frank (22), Mikal Gjerde (10), Danny Dade (2), Preston Santos (4), Ronnie DeGray (21), Noah Fernandes (11) and Tre Mitchell (33), holding his commemorative 1,000-point ball, were all honored during the final regular season game at Woodstock Academy. Photo by Greg Smith/The Woodstock Academy.
Centaurs
ranked #1
The Woodstock Academy Gold prep basketball team goes into the National Prep Basketball championship tournament this week as the No. 1 seed.
The tournament starts March 6 at Connecticut College in New London.
The Centaurs face the winner of the No. 8 Brewster Academy/No. 9 IMG Academy game in a quarterfinal at 3:30 p.m. March 6.
Should the Centaurs prevail, the Gold would play in a semifinal game at 11 a.m. March 7. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 7.
While they may be the top seed, the Centaurs realize that no one in the tournament is going to be an easy out.
In fact, the only loss the Centaurs suffered this season came at the hands of Brewster Academy, 80-77, on Jan. 26.
“Everybody is going to be the same caliber as us,” said Centaurs forward Darion Jordan-Thomas.
“I want a ring, that’s what I want,” forward Ronnie DeGray said with a laugh. “I think we’re peaking at the right time, but it’s one game at a time. We’re not worried about going home early. We came here to get better, but we also came here to win something.”
Center Tre Mitchell, who played for the Centaurs when they lost in the national semifinals last year, said there is a hunger to succeed this season.
“Last year, we came up a little short. I don’t think that will be the case this year. It would be great to get a (national championship) as a team and be the first team in Woodstock Academy history to accomplish that,” Mitchell said.
The Centaurs have not been heavily challenged since the National Prep Showcase at Rhode Island College in early February.
“We should be serious every game. There is no game that we should not be serious. There is no sleeping especially if we’re all going to be Division I players. When you get to that level, it’s just different,” Jordan-Thomas said.
The Centaurs go in on a high note.
The Gold squad won its second consecutive Power 5 Conference AAA tournament championship at the South End Community Center in Springfield, Mass., 94-73, over Springfield Commonwealth Academy March 3.
Tre Mitchell scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Woodstock Academy, which went into the national championship tournament with a 38-1 record.
Matt Cross chipped in with 18 points and eight boards. Guard Noah Fernandes had 17 points and seven assists.
The Centaurs had it even easier in the Power 5 semifinals.
They put up 76 points on Knox School in the first half and rolled to a 116-64 win March 2.
T.J. Weeks hit eight 3-pointers, seven in the first half, and finished with 26 points to lead the Centaurs.
Mitchell added 12 points and Jacob Toppin tossed in 11 as the Gold team completed a second straight year of being undefeated on the Woodstock Academy home floor.
Gold finishes regular season
The starting lineup looked a little different for the Centaurs Feb. 27.
“(It was) Senior Day and Coach (Tony Bergeron) told all of the seniors to go out and have fun. He let us all start. It was my first (start), but a lot of them already had. We just had a great time playing (Wednesday),” forward Ronnie DeGray said.
The new starting lineup changed little. The Centaurs walked away with the 119-54 win over Bradford Christian Academy in their final regular season game.
“It’s gone by extremely fast,” Mitchell said. “I think it’s just coming in every day and having fun with all these guys that it goes so quickly that you don’t even realize. It’s hard to keep track of.”
The Centaurs had no trouble winning Feb. 27.
Woodstock Academy scored the first nine points in the game and extended that lead to 15 with 11 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half.
The expected run followed.
The Gold squad led 28-16 with 10:42 left in the half when it reeled off the next 20 points. Weeks hit his only two 3-pointers of the first half in the run and Mitchell (18 points) scored five of his 10 first-half points.
“It’s hard to keep focus,” DeGray said of playing in a one-sided game. “You just have to lock down on ‘D,’ play our game and not play down to the opponents’ level.”
The Sentinels never challenged after that.
The Centaurs led 59-22 at the half and rolled in the second half.
DeGray led six players in double figures with 22.
“I think I could have still shot the ball a little better, but my teammates believed in me to shoot it, so I did,” DeGray said.
Toppin, Danny Dade, Jordan-Thomas and Weeks all finished with 11 points.
Mitchell clears 1,000
Mitchell became just the sixth boys’ basketball player and eighth basketball player in all to reach 1,000 points in a Woodstock Academy uniform.
The senior did so in a 122-76 win over Masters School Feb. 26.
“It’s just kind of crazy to think that I’ve only been here two years and I’ve put up (as many points) as I have. It all comes down to opportunity. I’ve been put in the right position to accomplish this,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell came to Woodstock Academy a year ago from Pittsburgh.
The 6-foot, 9-inch center is teetering on clearing the 2,000 point mark as he scored around 900 points in his former high school.
“Maybe I can reach that before the end of the season, but I guess that’s the next step,” Mitchell said. “It’s just wild. It was a goal (in Pittsburgh to reach 1,000 points) but when I came here, I knew it was probably not as common because it’s two years instead of four.”
The prep teams, however, play almost double the regular season that a normal high school team will play.
“I ended up getting it done,” Mitchell said. Toppin finished with 32 points in Tuesday’s win while Tre Williams added 21.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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