Friar Basketball

Live from Barrington, RI: Adams Does it Again

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Saturday provided the perfect opportunity to take in a NEPSAC double header. The NEPSAC AA semifinals took place in nearby Barrington, as top seeded St. Andrew’s hosted #4 Cushing, while a stream was available online for the 4 p.m. Brewster/Northfield Mount Hermon AAA semis.

It was almost cruel. A year ago Jalen Adams hit a 35 footer in the championship of NEPSAC’s Class AA to win the title for Cushing and steal what would have been a Cinderella run for St. Andrew’s. The Saints were the #8 seed last year and fell just short, but this season they hosted Adams and Cushing as the league’s top seed.

If last season’s loss was devastating, this one was almost unimaginable. Same opponent, same player making the winning shot, as Adams tipped home a miss with 12 seconds remaining to send Cushing to the finals against one-time PC recruit Abdul Malik Abu and Kimball Union.

Adams’ put back gave Cushing their first edge since it was 4-0 in the opening minutes. St. Andrew’s took a 44-31 lead with roughly 13 minutes to play and their advantage stayed around 10 (they led 53-44 with 6:48 remaining) for much of the second half, and it looked like Cushing was breaking mentally with players becoming visibly frustrated with one another throughout, but when you have the talent of Adams and Syracuse commit Kaleb Joseph (he hit a huge three with 46 seconds left to make it a one point game) just hanging around until the closing minutes if often good enough.

Notably, no members of the Providence staff were spotted at this one.

Mitchell Leads Brewster to Finals

There wasn’t near the drama in the AAA semis at Brewster. The Bobcats led Northfield Mount Hermon (Josh Sharma, Aaron Falzon) 38-30 at the half and saw their lead trimmed to just four with about 17 minutes left thanks to the strong play of NMH junior point guard Daquon Ervin, but top seeded Brewster opened this one up in the next five minutes.

2015 Providence target Donovan Mitchell led Brewster in scoring with 17 on the night, with eight of those coming in the first eight minutes of the second half. During the spurt he scored on a 13 foot pull up, a pair of free throws and two pretty spin moves in the open court. By the time Mitchell’s mini-outburst was complete the lead had expanded to 59-44 with just over 12 minutes left.

2014 recruit Devonte Graham added 13 points in the 82-66 victory.

Brewster will take on third seeded New Hampton tonight. They are 2-0 against their long-time rival this season, most recently winning 78-54.

Both finals games will take place at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.

 

 

 

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