Hawks rally for best win yet

Posted 2/11/14

Coming off a disappointing loss and five minutes away from another one, the Bishop Hendricken basketball team was in the most vulnerable spot it had been in all season on Sunday.

But instead of …

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Hawks rally for best win yet

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Coming off a disappointing loss and five minutes away from another one, the Bishop Hendricken basketball team was in the most vulnerable spot it had been in all season on Sunday.

But instead of accepting a second consecutive defeat, the Hawks exploded for their biggest victory of the year.

Down 41-36 at home to a Coventry team that is one of the state’s best, Hendricken got two enormous three-pointers on consecutive possessions from senior E.J. Nygren and 11 points in the final 4:52 from junior Matt Duffie to rally for a 61-49 win over the Oakers.

In just under five minutes, the Hawks played perhaps their best stretch of basketball this season and out-scored Coventry 25-8.

Hendricken is 10-2 now, leads Division I-South and is in third place in the overall statewide standings. Coventry is 10-4 and is in fourth place in the overall standings. Had the Oakers won, they would have jumped the Hawks both in the D-I standings and the state standings.

“I’ve been telling them all year long – you’ve got to play tough,” said Hendricken head coach Jamal Gomes. “Play within yourself, and you play mentally and physically tough. You can’t back down and you can’t get too over-amped up. You’ve got to find that happy medium and our guys did today.”

The win was even more gratifying for the Hawks because it came on the heels of a tough 58-57 loss to a .500 Central team on Friday, which snapped a five-game winning streak.

“These guys don’t want to let each other down,” Gomes said. “We bounced back. And that’s the sign of a good team is how you bounce back from a tough loss. We bounced back today.”

It wasn’t an ideal situation for much of the game, as Hendricken never led until Nygren’s first three-pointer with 3:35 left gave the Hawks a 43-41 advantage. Coventry led by as many as eight in the first half and as many as six in the second half.

Hendricken just never quit. The comeback began after Coventry’s Joseph Foley scored four straight points to give the Oakers the five-point lead at 41-36.

Duffie was able to score inside on Hendricken’s next possession and Foley missed a shot on the other end of the court before Duffie forced his way to the basket again to cut Coventry’s lead to one point.

The Oakers tried to rush the ball up the court but turned it over to Hendricken freshman Justin Mazzulla, who quickly turned back up the court and found Nygren by himself in the left corner. The pass was on the money and so was the shot, giving Hendricken a two-point lead.

Again Coventry tried to run up the court, but it fell victim to the exact same thing. The ball rolled loose and ended up in Mazzulla’s hands once more, and he found Nygren in the very same corner spot. Nygren didn’t miss, putting Hendricken up 46-41, forcing Coventry into a timeout and sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

“That kid’s a worker,” Gomes said of Nygren. “He’s a kid we kept in the program last year because we just love him. He’s an awesome kid. He’s a hard worker, he understands his role, he’s coming off of two or three kind of off-shooting nights, and then he comes in and makes two of the biggest shots maybe of the season.”

Out of the timeout, Hendricken didn’t miss a beat. Connor Flynn missed a three for Coventry and Duffie buried a long, off-balance jumper with the shot clock winding down to put the Hawks up 48-41. Consecutive Coventry turnovers gave way to four more Hendricken points – two on a layup by Duffie, two on free throws by Kyle Henseler – to cap off a 16-0 run in just over three minutes.

“We stay together,” Duffie said. “We just stick to it until the end. Every time we were right there, almost there. We just kept fighting and it was there, together.”

Coventry’s Ethan Lesnett hit a three-pointer to finally stop the bleeding, but Henseler made one of two free throws and Coventry missed a three-pointer when it got the ball back. With possession again, Duffie was fouled and hit one free throw, before missing the second, but Garfield Coustard grabbed the rebound and got the ball back to Duffie, who was fouled again and made both free throws. That made the score 56-44, putting the game out of reach.

“He’s so strong, he’s such a good athlete, he’s tough,” Gomes said of Duffie. “He doesn’t back down. He just keeps coming and keeps coming. He’s very good around the basket. I’m very proud of him.”

Mazzulla put an exclamation point on the victory two possessions later when he found himself completely free on a fast break and dunked the ball emphatically.

It was an emotional and exciting team win.

“This is as good as it gets,” Duffie said. “It was fun.”

Duffie ended the game with 23 points, while Mazzulla had 14, Henseler had 10 and Nygren had seven. Coventry was led by Lesnett’s 11. Sean Roles, the Oakers’ leading scorer at 18.4 points per game, was held to just eight points.

“He’s averaging 19-20 points a game, and then if you get sucked in on him they’ve got the perimeter shooters,” Gomes said of Roles. “We really had to dig in on defense, and we did.”

In the first half, Hendricken went down 14-6 before going on a 6-0 run with Duffie scoring four points and Chris O’Brien adding a bucket. Coventry upped the lead to 18-12 and 20-14 before the Hawks rallied and then closed with the final three points to go into the half trailing 22-20.

But the last five minutes of the game were what really made the difference.

“It was a great team effort,” Gomes said. “Guys that came in off the bench provided a lift. We could have easily folded when they went up by five or six points.”

Hendricken is in the midst of a brutal stretch of games, and it won’t get easier today when it hosts 9-3 North Kingstown at 7 p.m. The Skippers handed the Hawks one of their only two losses on the year, a 61-52 defeat on Jan. 13.

After that, Hendricken will travel to Cranston West on Friday at 7 p.m. and then take on 11-1 La Salle on Sunday on the road at 2 p.m. The Rams have the best record in Division I and lead the statewide standings.

“This team, I think we can go far,” Duffie said. “We’ve just got to stick together.”

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  • halloweencostumes

    RI ACLU Stephen Brown Notifies Warwick Minimum Housing Board Violated OMA Open Meetings Act At this meeting the chair jude plante announced there would be no electronics allowed, taping,videoing etc. I objected he related town council atty robt sgroi confirmed they could demand this or call the police if I didn't comply. I shut the tablet off. But I stated I would contact Stephen Brown RI ACLU and AG regarding this violation of open meetings act ri 4246-1. He said alright. I did, Mr Brown sent out notice they violated RI OMA . Town atty Ruggerio related shouldn't of and only Mr Sgroi apologized to me.This was done intentionally to block me . I have had numerous problems with the clerk : annamarie marchetti and she set the attys and board in motion. The day before she told me I couldn't speak at the meeting either.

    Please enter cindy cook ri in google or youtube and you will see videos of the beginning of the meeting where they violate my rights and then the audio I received from the town they made at the meeting. Plus the conditions of the cottage we rent that has numerous code violations. Worst matter is bathroom toilet floods from connector hose and underneath,floor soaked rotted,no seal causing it to move around the floor and it cannot flush. It goes to a 200 gal cesspool and the pipes are broken causing the toilet paper to get caught on them . We have to place a plastic bag across the toilet seat down go then empty it into a barrel through the window. Mayor scott avedisian ,blg dept al decorte are fully aware of this and haven't had it repaired. Alfred esposito, 83yrs old,a vet in his fla condo [not hosp] is listed as owner but his niece cindy r cook and her husband barry cook really are the owners. Uncle esposito let them put it in his name in 2003 whereas they filed bankruptcy in 2000 etc and couldn't put it in their names. Barry and cindy had a real estate business he was on east providence housing board,councilman , vp citizens bank 17yrs so the know they should never of rented this uninhabitable property especially to an elderly disabled senior and her caregiver. The water bill hasn't been paid since 2009 $2,100 , lien whereas uncle esposito co-sign for niece cindy's business which failed and they haven't paid rent on this leased land for several mos.Moved in oct & gave them $2,250.The links to the RI ACLU Stephen Brown's letters and town atty.http://tinyurl.com/q7furx3

    Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Report this