The Putnam Science Academy boys’ prep team extended its undefeated season to 23-0 with three wins coming this past week, pushing the overall win streak to 47 games.
The Mustangs went on the road vs Commonwealth Academy and walked away with an 83-64 win before returning home for a make-up game against Lee Academy Jan. 18 in a 106-90 victory.
One thing about prep basketball is not too many things are set in stone when it comes to scheduling. PSA had their eyes on St. Thomas More in the HoopHall Classic held in Springfield but then changes were made. PSA was told they would face Mount Vernon in a late change to the schedule Jan. 20 but then were notified Jan. 19 they would take on MacDuffie School in the evening, Jan. 20. After the game plan switched a few times, the Mustangs traveled up to Springfield to face MacDuffie in their backyard with future UConn Husky commit James Bouknight, former Putnam Science Academy guard Tanahj Pettway and Wake Forest commit Ismael Massoud waiting.
Putnam Science Academy answered the bell played arguably the best basketball of the season at HoopHall.
The Mustangs jumped out to a 48-19 lead at the half after shooting 43 percent from the field and 83 percent at the free throw line, which has been an issue for this Putnam Science team. PSA capitalized on second chance opportunities with 21 points to 6 in that category and added 36 points off turnovers with 50 points coming in the paint on their way to a dominate 79-59 win. PSA trailed for 2:34 in the game with their largest lead coming in the 2nd half at 31 points.
Wichita State-bound Tyson Etienne controlled the offense leading the way with 19 points and had 7 steals with 3 assists. Hassan Diarra keeps getting it done for the Mustangs as one of the 5 returning players from last year’s Prep Championship team, finishing with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Demarr Langford and Abou Ousmane added 8 points each while Bryant commit Charles Pride had 7 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals to keep PSA undefeated and keeping a tight grip on the #1 overall ranking.
Back to Basics
The Putnam Science Academy boys’ varsity broke even at 1-1 last week.
After dropping a game early in the week to Redemption Christian Academy 76-62 that brought the Mustangs losing streak to two straight games, Head Coach Dana Valentine said the effort was lacking. “We need to play like we give a damn. The energy and effort hasn’t been there in the last few games and we need to make adjustments.” The Mustangs heard the message loud in clear as they blew out Capital Prep Harbor at home two days later, 107-71, to pick up win number 10 on the season. Tyler Henry has answered the bell multiple times this season and did it again in the win scoring 22 points, 17 coming in the first half. PSA is now 10-7 and play 3 games next week all on the road.
Varsity 2 Team 2-2
Putnam Science Academy’s Varsity 2 team had its toughest stretch of basketball this past week with four games lined up on the schedule.
The week started with a blowout win over Oxford Academy, 93-33, but then was on the receiving end as Rectory School defeated PSA 78-57. That game saw the Mustangs trail 44-14 at halftime.
Two days later, Putnam Science traveled up to Nichols College and couldn’t keep up with the bigger Bison team losing 109-78 despite Zach Boulay’s 27 points. Head Coach Jay Azar got his team back on track Jan. 19 in a home contest with Hoosac winning 77-72. The Mustangs trailed by 5 at the half and lost Zach Boulay early in the second half due to a high ankle sprain. Dillon Hod came off the bench and stepped up scoring 20 points and making several high-energy plays that had the PSA gymnasium rocking. Amir Sanders nearly had a double-double with 14 points and 9 rebounds as the Mustangs are now 10-5 and have two games at home this upcoming week.
Varsity Girls Drop Game
Putnam Science Academy’s varsity girls’ team has saw success in Head Coach Candice Hernandez’s first year at the helm. The Lady Mustangs started the season 3-0 but then got into the real “meat” of their schedule with games against Commonwealth Academy and Redemption Christian Academy. The Ladies faced off against Commonwealth Academy and lost in a nail biter 43-41 on the road.
PSA had lost earlier in the year to Commonwealth 63-50 so it was progress. Brianna Mead played a huge role in the second half scoring 14 points in the loss for the Mustangs who are now 7-4.
Prep Lady Mustangs 1-1
Abby Robinson missed a few games leading up to PSA’s home game versus Navy Prep and she would make her presence felt right away. Robinson had to fight for playing time on last year’s Prep team due to three Division 1 forwards playing ahead of her. But she’s made quite the impact on this year’s team. Robinson dominated the glass in her return grabbing a season-high 17 rebounds and finishing with 11 points, recording her 2econd double-double of the season in a 78-58 win over Navy Prep.
The Mustangs faced a much harder task playing in the Rose Classic Super Jam against nationally ranked Crestwood from Canada. It was a dog fight from the beginning and came down to the buzzer but PSA’s Fatima Lee rimmed out on a buzzer beating three-point attempt to lose 45-43. Lee, Providence Friar commit, had 9 points and University of Rhode Island-commit Xianna Josephs led the Mustangs with 11 points. PSA’s three-game winning streak came to an end but Head Coach Derek Marchione’s team still holds an impressive 13-3 record.
Josh Sanchas
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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Commits
Hometown girl Kira Clinkscale from Putnam Science Academy recently announced her commitment to play basketball at the next level. Clinkscale, who attended Putnam High School, transferred to Putnam Science Academy after hearing about the start of a girls’ prep team. Under first-year Head Coach Derek Marchione, she played with a ton of talent helping lead the Mustangs to a 22-9 record in their first season. She helped with the new faces on the Prep and Varsity team with the Prep team boasting a 13-3 record and the varsity girls having success at 7-4. It came down to three schools but she said she will be attending Becker College on scholarship to play for the Division 3 Hawks. She said: “I want to thank the staff, my teammates and coach Derek at PSA for getting me where I am today! I am extremely excited to announce I’ve been accepted into Becker’s nursing program and will be continuing my basketball career as a Hawk!” Courtesy photo.
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The Woodstock Academy boys’ basketball team is nearing the halfway mark of its season.
With final exams for the first semester this week at the school, Centaurs coach Marty Hart said he has been pretty happy with his team’s performance.
“I would give us a solid ‘B’,” Hart said of his team’s 5-4 record at the end of last week. “Where we need to improve is in our transition defense and our shooting and scoring in halfcourt sets. I’m really happy with our rebounding and balance. I’m happy that we give more assists than most teams and our passing and handling of pressure defense has been very good. We just need to get home and play teams within our division and we will be competitive.”
When Hart talks division, he means CIAC Division IV, because Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II is not easy with the likes of Waterford (10-1) and Fitch (5-5).
The Centaurs lately have also had to battle some ECC Division I opponents.
Such was the case Jan. 18 when they traveled to Norwich to take on the NFA Wildcats and came out on the short end of a 66-40 score.
“Their athleticism, their home court, their home crowd, got to us,” Hart said.
The Centaurs fell behind early, 18-9, in the first quarter.
“We were getting the shots we wanted; we just weren’t able to knock them down. They started out a little cold, like us, and we were rebounding well, but they got a few to fall and got hotter at home. In a 10-point game, that’s five possessions. You miss on a couple of shots, give up three and that’s 10 points,” Hart said.
The Wildcats extended the lead to 16 by halftime, 31-15.
The Centaurs hung with the Wildcats in the third quarter but saw NFA lock it away in the fourth.
Luke Mathewson led the Centaurs with 11 points while Cole Hackett added eight while leading scorer Chase Anderson, who was averaging 18.7 points per game coming in, was held to seven.
All of Anderson’s points came in the third quarter.
“The opponents certainly key on him and he does a number of other things to try and score. He’s a great passer, a great rebounder, and if a team keys on him, we do need to be a little better and be a bit more balanced to try and counter that,” Hart said.
The Centaurs did get a more balanced effort and a win Jan. 15 against the Windham Whippets at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
Anderson scored 18 points while Aaron Johnson added 12 and Mathewson 11 in the 68-55 win.
Johnson played a large role with his ability to lead the attack in transition.
In a key part of the game, Johnson assisted on four consecutive Woodstock Academy baskets.
“He’s such a quick ballhandler and if we can stretch the defense by getting the ball out to him and him being the point guard of our transition – that’s great,” Hart said. “We’ve got a number of capable guards who can help handle the ball, but it’s important for him to facilitate for us. He’s the sparkplug and he gets us going.”
Hackett, just coming off an elbow injury, scored only nine points but was a monster off the boards, pulling down 19 rebounds, and 14 of them off the defensive glass.
That kind of effort made it easier for Johnson to get things ignited.
“We have really worked on the transition. Let’s get our 3, 4, and 5 rebounding and get out 1 and 2 spread out wide and get the transition going. That way we can run a little sideline break and look for trailers up the middle. The guys want to run. That’s great with me and I want to do it with a purpose and make sure we always get back on defense,” Hart said.
The Centaurs broke away from the Whippets in the middle quarters.
It was close in the first with the Centaurs leading by only two, 19-17, before they outscored Windham 15-9 and 19-5 in the second and third quarters.
The win broke a two-game losing streak for the Centaurs who had fallen to Fitch and East Lyme on the road the week before.
“When you go on the road against the upper division in the ECC it’s very steep, so it’s nice to come back home to the friendly confines of the Alumni Fieldhouse,” Hart said. “We put together a lot of the phases of our game against Windham. It was a nice game for us and it showed that a lot of the things we’re working on are improving.”
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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Losing streaks can sometimes be tough to climb out of.
The Woodstock Academy Centaurs girls’ basketball team was starting to get into a little rut, having lost three in a row.
Fortunately, the skid ended Jan. 17 with a 39-14 win over Ledyard.
“I think it was huge,” Woodstock Academy coach Will Fleeton said of the win. “Sometimes, you get caught in the habit and if that’s losing, you may continue to do so. It was good to shake that off, get the ‘W’ and get back on track.”
The win raised the Centaurs record to 7-5, one win shy of qualifying for the Class LL state tournament.
“That’s a tribute to the kids that they are really battling these good teams. We’ve played a lot of good teams already at the halfway point and have just as many more in the second half. The kids have done a really good job stepping it up,” Fleeton said.
The Centaurs wanted to get out of the gates quickly against the Colonels and they succeeded.
Ledyard scored the first two points off the tip, but Woodstock Academy responded with the next 16 points.
Junior point guard Marina Monrabal (five assists) was a key to the fast start.
She finished with nine steals, most of those coming off the press and many of those came early in the game.
“That was the whole key to getting out on them early. We picked them up, pressured them and that got us the early run,” Fleeton said.
The Centaurs went up 25-4 by the end of the first half, giving Fleeton the ability to substitute liberally.
Kayla Gaudreau led the Centaurs with 12 points, all of those coming off 3-point shots.
“It was nice to see her knocking down some shots. We need her to do that for us. She has been a little sporadic through the season trying to find her way. Ledyard is a tough place to play in, but I don’t think it is for Gaudreau. That might be her spot,” Fleeton said with a laugh.
Heather Converse added 11 points for the Centaurs while Katie Papp pulled down eight rebounds.
Things were not as good earlier in the week for the Centaurs who traveled to East Lyme and lost, 65-42.
The Centaurs are playing in Division I of the Eastern Connecticut Conference for a first time and have found the road to be a little bumpy, losing to the Vikings, Norwich Free Academy and New London.
“It’s been very difficult,” Fleeton said. “The positive on it is that the girls have really tried to step it up and play up to the match that level with effort and intensity. They have made it a little better than it could have been.”
The Centaurs hung with East Lyme early.
The two teams were tied at 13 in the first quarter before the Vikings pulled ahead by eight at the half. It was a double-digit lead for East Lyme going into the final quarter, but it was a manageable one as Woodstock Academy was down by only 11.
“Tough team, tough night, but I don’t think the score was indicative of the game. I think we lost control in the fourth. We got back within eight and then, we just fell off. I don’t think we played a horrible game, but we had a horrible fourth quarter,” Fleeton said.
The Centaurs were outscored in the fourth, 22-10.
Converse led the Centaurs with a double-double, 15 points, 12 rebounds, and Gaudreau added 13. Megan Bauman led the Vikings with 21 while Sophie Dubreuil added 18.
The tournament season will be difficult.
Not only do the Centaurs have to play in the ECC Division I tournament but also the Class LL state tourney,
“I hope it will help set us up for a good run in the ECC tournament and we will piggyback off of that into the LL. I’m partially excited (about the LL tournament) and partially afraid,” Fleeton said with a laugh. “It’s nice to be at this stage right now. Maybe it takes some pressure off the kids to know that we’re a little closer because it was a goal to qualify (for the state tournament), and this will take the pressure off and we can just go play,” Fleeton said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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