Skippers down Hawks in state quarterfinals

Matt Metcalf
Posted 3/10/15

By MATT METCALF

Sports Editor

For a majority of the season, Bishop Hendricken head coach, Jamal Gomes, warned his team that if their defense didn’t improve, they would be going home early …

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Skippers down Hawks in state quarterfinals

Posted

By MATT METCALF

Sports Editor

For a majority of the season, Bishop Hendricken head coach, Jamal Gomes, warned his team that if their defense didn’t improve, they would be going home early when playoff time came around.

On Sunday night, Hendricken’s defensive lapses caught up to it, as North Kingstown punched its ticket to the Final Four with a 73-69 win over the Hawks in the quarterfinals at Providence College’s Alumni Hall.

Hendricken rolled into the quarterfinals after a 67-46 win over Middletown in the first round on Friday night, but it was in for a much tougher test against the Skippers on Sunday.

The Hawks struggled with their perimeter defense, particularly in the first half, with the Skippers knocking down eight 3’s before halftime and 11 for the game.

North Kingstown’s Matt Madoian couldn’t miss in the first half, draining four 3’s and compiling a game-high 18 points. Hendricken struggled to mark the Skippers’ sharp shooter and, as a result, North Kingstown took a 37-29 lead into halftime.

“This year, our weakness has been on the defensive end,” Gomes said. “Our perimeter defense has been our Achilles heel all season long. We struggled this year guarding the ball. When you struggle like that, teams can get in there and that opens up the perimeter.”

Hendricken junior, Dimitri Rosa, hit three 3’s in the opening half, en route to scoring a team-high nine points.

But despite Rosa’s efforts, the Hawks would be forced to erase a significant deficit in the second half if they wanted to play at the Ryan Center on Saturday.

The Hawks looked to be trending in the right direction early, as Trevor Lawton made a layup and, after a North Kingstown turnover, Kyle Henseler converted a basket in transition, cutting Hendricken’s deficit to four.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, though, North Kingstown would battle back – as it did all night.

Hendricken did a much better job in the second half of denying Madoian the ball. However, he was able to get on the board with 6:37 remaining, hitting 1-of-2 free throws to give the Skippers a 59-53 lead.

But the Hawks would make a run in the final minutes.

Lawton collected an offensive rebound and converted a layup, before Hendricken created a turnover and pushed the ball ahead to Dan Flaherty, who cut the deficit to two, 66-64, with 2:30 left in the game.

Sophomore Justin Mazzulla then tied the game with a pair of free throws, but the tie didn’t last long.

North Kingstown came down the floor and answered and then forced a Hendricken miss.

On the next possession, Skippers’ guard, Tyler Peters, was found all along cutting to the hoop after a screen. Peters made an uncontested layup to push North Kingstown’s lead back out to four.

Feeling the pressure of needing to score quickly, Hendricken just couldn’t get the crucial bucket that it needed.

North Kingstown went on to continue to make its free throws down the stretch.

When it was all said and done, it was North Kingstown punching its ticket to the Final Four, but it was clear that there wasn’t much that separated the two teams.

“Every time we play North Kingstown, that’s how it is,” Gomes said. “It’s two heavyweights going after each other. I’m very proud of our guys. We battled and had our opportunities. There were times near the end where we needed to execute and we didn’t.”

Madoian led all scorers in the game with 23 points. The Skippers also got 20 from point guard Jake Gillis, as he hit three 3-pointers and was tremendous from the free throw line in the second half. Peters chipped in with 16 points, while Cam Moniz added 11.

For the Hawks, Rosa scored a team-high 15 points on five 3’s. Mazzulla finished with 13, while Lawton recorded 12 points and a team-high 11 rebounds and Flaherty added 10 points.

Although the Hawks had an above average season on paper, the disappointment was inevitable following the conclusion of the game.

For a program that has built a winning tradition, losing in the quarterfinals is never expected, but Gomes was happy with the way his team fought until the very end.

“I’m proud of our effort and our season,” Gomes said. “This is a terrific group of young men. It’s a tight group and you can see that in how we battled at the end. I told them that sometimes you give it your all and it doesn’t go your way. We’ve been on both sides of that.”

Gomes gave credit to the Skippers, however, who undoubtedly presented the Hawks with a tough quarterfinal match-up.

“North Kingstown is an awesome team and those kids played hard,” Gomes said. “They’re a very well-coached team.”

The Hawks will bring a majority of their roster back next season, as they only started one senior.

Gomes is hoping that the younger players have learned from experiences like Sunday and will move forward.

“It’s a tough lesson, but it’s a young group,” Gomes said. “For a majority of the game, we had a freshman and sophomore out there. It stinks, but we’re only going to get better.”

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