Archive - Sports Article
February 8th, 2011
Some things I think I think:
It was nice to see North Smithfield’s Corinne Coia gain some local recognition for her productive basketball career at Lincoln School. The 6-foot-4 senior, who has signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Rhode Island, scored 25 points on Monday night and now has 1,019 points in her career. She passed 1,000 career rebounds earlier this season.
WOONSOCKET – In her freshman year of high school swimming last winter for Cumberland High, all Courtney Kent did was win a state title. Kent shocked the field by capturing the 500-yard freestyle with an impressive time of 5 minutes, 6.45 seconds at the Tootel Aquatic Center at URI.
What does the tenth-grader expect to do for the encore?
How about cop two individual titles at the Feb. 19 state championship and possibly break a state record by a certain U.S. Olympian, who makes Rhode Island her home.
February 7th
WOONSOCKET — When the first half finished, Tammy Drape crouched down and just stared at the court for about 30 seconds. If the court was made of dirt, the Tolman High coach would have probably dug a hole and buried herself inside.
It was that frustrating.
The Tigers picked the wrong time to have one of their worst offensive showings of the season. Facing first-place Mount St. Charles Academy on Monday night, Tolman went into a massive scoring drought in the initial half and could never quite recover as the Mounties rolled to a 43-28 rout in their Division II-North contest.
February 6th
Some high school hoop-related tidbits to pass along …
You could say the three divisional tournaments in boys’ basketball are suffering from the same symptoms normally associated with middle child syndrome. Blame such thinking on our minds being somewhere else, the focus instead on the chaos and suspense hovering over the squeeze-everything-in gauntlet needed to complete the regular season. There’s also a great deal of buzz in the air surrounding the open state tournament, the new frontier that will lead to the crowning of one champion.
February 5th
PROVIDENCE — Lincoln High coach John Menna may have had the prefect response when asked how to defeat Cumberland in the Northern Division Championship – “Probably pray a lot. That’s about it,” he said. “They are deep in just about all areas.”
February 4th
WEST WARWICK --- In a season full of lopsided victories, Friday night’s showdown at the West Warwick Civic Center with longtime rival Bay View was a welcomed sight for Mount St. Charles.
And so was the end result, a 3-2 win by the defending state champions that saw them dominate play for most of the contest, play excellent defense, and remain perfect in a dozen games.
WARWICK – For the past 12 league games, Mount St. Charles Academy has punished most of its opponents in Division I, averaging about seven goals an outing.
Not this time.
La Salle Academy avenged its earlier shellacking to the Mounties on Friday night to give its rival its first setback of the winter with a thrilling 3-0 victory at Thayer Arena. The Rams received an outstanding effort from goalie Joseph Noonan to earn their shut out win. Playing his first game since suffering an injury on New Year’s Day, Noonan turned away 27 shots by the Mounties.
February 3rd
CRANSTON — Two of the four heavyweight programs in Division I squared off on Thursday night. Cumberland and Cranston West threw haymakers at each other all night with the defending state champion Clippers getting off the deck to win a 36-28 slugfest.
Cumberland scored five pins, worth six points each in the team scoring, to a pair of deck jobs for the Falcons. Those pins, especially the ones scored by Brandon Ferreri and Tom Lacroix after Cranston West had taken a 25-21 lead after 160 pounds, proved the difference in this topsy-turvy match.
WOONSOCKET — Woonsocket High coach George Coderre likes the way his team has been playing lately with the postseason only a month away. The Villa Novans’ 57-33 rout of Lincoln High on Thursday night was the latest example.
The win by the Novans improves their record to 7-4 in Division I. It also comes just two days after Coderre’s crew lost a tight 52-51 decision to second-place Bay View Academy, a Bengal squad that demolished Woonsocket, 49-24, in its league opener back on Dec. 9.
February 2nd
PROVIDENCE — Woonsocket’s Mike Akinrola is making a big impact on Rhode Island College’s basketball team this season.
The 6-foot-6 junior is averaging 14.3 points per game. He was named Little East Conference Co-Player of the Week last week after averaging 21.5 points and five rebounds in two games.
