Rhode Island represents at Seaver basketball tournament

FOXBORO — As the Wally Seaver High School Invitational continued its expansion this year with a tournament-high 158 teams signing up for the three-day event in its 10th summer, so did the diversity of competition that the top Massachusetts teams in the bracket had to face.

On championship Sunday at the Mass Premier facility in Foxboro, Rhode Island showed off its stuff.

Both the Mansfield and North Quincy boys programs faced out-of-state competition in the finale of the tournament’s premier two boys divisions, with only one getting the better of its southern neighbor. LaSalle Academy rode the coattails of its biggest stars to take one of the six championships held at the facility, outlasting Mansfield 65-61 despite a 21-point performance from Hornets senior Matt Hyland. North Quincy didn’t have the same issue, bulldozing its way to an 81-57 victory over East Providence behind Daithi Quinn and Nikko Mortel.

Win or loss, players from the two programs were pleased with the level of play in high school summer ball free of AAU control.

“Good competition, played five games this whole tournament — all good games,” Mortel said. “It’s good practice to get us ready for the season, lot of good (competition). Helps us out a lot.”

“It was fun, we were just trying to get up and down the court,” added Hyland. “It’s great (to play against Rhode Island teams), it’s different. We’re from the (Hockomock League), so we usually play a lot of in-Mass. teams. We don’t really get out of Massachusetts, but it’s fun. They play a fast style of basketball.”

Hyland still got a little taste of AAU by matching up with LaSalle’s Raf Awa — one of his teammates — and wound up on the losing end. Awa showed off a deep bag of moves, helping his squad break through in the closing minutes with a game-high 28 points. He and Dimetri Lafrate’s 17 points were more than enough to rally past a deep Mansfield offense that saw six different players contribute five points, and they came up especially huge with efficient scoring once the Hornets started breaking out its plus-shooting from their big men.

It was all in good fun, and Awa certainly took pleasure in getting the better of his friend in summer tune-up basketball for a good cause.

“We love to have intense competition and we love to play outside our comfort zone, and I think playing the Mass. teams is one of those things where it brings us all together,” he said. “(Playing with Hyland) is trash talk, it’s all the bragging rights. Everything that’s going to happen after the game – the text messages. Oh my God, he’s never going to live this down. That’s friendly fun.”

LaSalle and East Providence were two of 27 out-of-state teams that competed over the weekend, and were joined by Brewer (Maine) as non-Mass. varsity teams  in the championship game. Six different states sent teams paying a $295 entry fee to help raise money in the fight against ALS, which leads to more admission tickets and a lot more money raised. Invitational director Paul Seaver was very satisfied with the tournament’s expansion from the mere 16 teams that played in its inaugural summer.

“That growth … is so appealing to me,” he said. “None of it is possible without the players, the coaches and obviously my staff that continues to work and make the event good every year.”

Other standouts on the day came at the girls and junior varsity divisions.

Canton claimed its second championship since 2018, ousting Walpole 63-44 to finish the tournament undefeated. Much of the same came from Old Rochester, topping Dracut 50-33 after getting past New Hampshire foe, Bow.

Franklin won the junior varsity Maroon Division with an 82-81 double-overtime win over Smithfield (RI) on a late corner 3-pointer, and Uxbridge edged Milford by one point, 63-62 to take home the other JV championship.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3jaQ45h