DeCesare named MVP of title game

By Pete Fontaine
Posted 3/23/17

It was only two short years ago when Jayme DeCesare and her traveling Johnston basketball teammates won the Rhode Island Youth Basketball Championship. Sunday, DeCesare vaulted to the state's high school girls' summit and won not one but

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DeCesare named MVP of title game

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It was only two short years ago when Jayme DeCesare and her traveling Johnston basketball teammates won the Rhode Island Youth Basketball Championship.

Sunday, DeCesare vaulted to the state’s high school girls’ summit and won not one but two terrific titles.

For starters, DeCesare led the La Salle Academy Lady Rams to an impressive 41-33 victory over the Barrington High Lady Eagles in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s Division I State Championship final at The Ryan Center in Kingston.

Then, amid La Salle’s jubilant post-game state championship celebration, the public address announcer proclaimed DeCesare as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

This is, for all intents and purposes, quite an accomplishment considering that DeCesare – the daughter of Johnstonians David and Jo-Ann DeCesare – is only a sophomore.

It was DeCesare’s prominent playmaking that helped La Salle outscore Barrington, 27-20, in the first half and edge the Lady Eagles, 14-13, in the second half to capture the state title and finish the 2016-17 season with a 24-5 overall record.

Unlike the state tournament semifinal against Johnston High’s Lady Panthers, DeCesare only scored three points – all via foul shots – in Sunday’s victorious finale.

However, as girls’ basketball fans discovered, the Johnston resident who once starred for St. Rocco’s basketball teams, was the key to the Lady Rams’ offense as she dished out assists and directed the offensive attack.

Ironically, neither La Salle nor Barrington had a player score in double figures Sunday, but eight different Lady Rams contributed between three and eight points. Johnston’s Kyra Mattera had four points and as many rebounds. DeCesare also had five rebounds.

In Saturday’s 66-37 victory versus Johnston, the La Salle duo’s hometown and former youth teammates, DeCesare and Mattera shared top scoring honors with 14 points each.

DeCesare was 6-of-8 in two-point field goals and 2-of-3 from beyond the 3-point arc. Mattera, meanwhile, canned 7-of-9 attempts and grabbed five key rebounds.

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