CCRI BASKETBALL PREVIEWS

Talented men’s team aims high after fast start

By Matt Metcalf, Assistant Sports Editor
Posted 11/20/14

The 2013-14 season for the CCRI men’s basketball team didn’t end as it hoped it would.

The Knights finished the season with an 18-13 record, but lost their final two games to rival Dean …

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CCRI BASKETBALL PREVIEWS

Talented men’s team aims high after fast start

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The 2013-14 season for the CCRI men’s basketball team didn’t end as it hoped it would.

The Knights finished the season with an 18-13 record, but lost their final two games to rival Dean College, the latter of the two coming in the Region XXI championship game.

But this year’s a new year and CCRI’s roster is infused with loads of new talent. That new talent seems to be clicking early as well, as the Knights have raced out to a 4-0 start.

“We haven’t had this much talent since the 2011-12 season,” head coach Rick Harris said.

That’s definitely some high praise from Harris, whose 2011-12 team set a school mark with 31 wins. They were also only the second team in school history to make it to the national championship game, losing to Mott Community College out of Flint, Michigan, 70-60, in Danville, Ill.

CCRI will return its top scorer from a season ago in Anthony Jernigan from East Hartford, Conn. Jernigan will return as undoubtedly one of the top point guards in the region, averaging 15.6 points and 5.5 assists per game last year, both team-highs.

“We all know that he can score,” Harris said. “What I need from him this year is to cut down on the turnovers and take care of the ball. That’s a huge emphasis for us this year.”

Jernigan will take on the role of captain for a second straight year, along with sophomores Malieke Young, Jerome Harris, and Pat Doyle.

Harris is a little bit of an unknown heading into this season. The Hartford native was on CCRI’s 2012-13 team, before taking last year off to rehab a knee injury. Harris, who will team-up with Jernigan in the Knights’ backcourt, averaged 7.8 points per game in 2012-13 and scored 19 in CCRI’s first game of this season against Bunker Hill Community College.

“We’ll be as good as our sophomores are,” Rick Harris said. “We have a lot of newcomers. Our young guys have a lot of talent, but they’re also inexperienced.”

Highlighting the group of newcomers is Grant Gillis from North Kingstown. Gillis was a First-Team All-State selection last season at North Kingstown High School, pulling down 275 rebounds, a single-season school record.

The 6-foot-8 big man was a much needed recruit for Harris, who graduated Pat Marchand, Elijah Okagbare and Alioune Ndiaye, who clogged up the front court for the Knights a season ago.

“He may be the best big man that I’ve had,” Rick Harris said. “He’s agile and has great hands.”

Gillis will be joined in the frontcourt by Mahda Breweh from Dover, Del. The 6-foot-6 power forward has already shown glimpses of great potential.

“Brewah is a strong, physical kid,” Rick Harris said. “He’s inexperienced, but I think he’ll end up being a force for us.”

The Knights certainly don’t need help at the shooting guard position. Sharp-shooters Young and Marshall Nelson will be three-point threats all season long. Young had an outstanding freshman season last year, averaging just south of nine points per game, while Nelson, a freshman from Perth, Western Australia, is second on the team with 11.8 points per game through the team’s first four games. Nelson’s scoring numbers are second to Jernigan, who is averaging an impressive 18.5 points and 8.8 assists per game.

With a surplus of quality guards, Rick Harris plans to play four guards with Gillis in the middle at times, to spread the floor.

“We can really run with four guards in the game,” Rick Harris said. “With that lineup, we’ll be able to shoot the ball and play great defense.”

Key bench players will include sophomores Johnson Weah, Flavio Barros, Doyle, Austin Gagan and freshmen Michael DeJesus, CJ White, Chris Smith, Jordan Grant and Samuel Joseph.

DeJesus, who is a native of Cranston and played at Cranston West, has been a solid contributor off of the bench in the early stages of the season.

“He’s been a little bit of a surprise for us,” Rick Harris said. “He’s definitely a threat from three-point range. He’s played very solid for us.”

DeJesus has been in double-figures in two of the four games in his brief CCRI career, scoring 10 points against Bristol Community College and the University of Connecticut at Avery Point.

All of the pieces that the Knights have should add up to a successful season.

However, it still remains to be seen if the Knights have improved enough to get past Dean this season. The Bulldogs currently sit at 4-1 and rank ninth in the Division II National Junior College Athletic Association poll.

Dean also returned its best player from a year ago, in former Rhode Island First Team All-State selection and St. Raphael guard Charles Correa. Correa averaged 13.5 points, three rebounds and a team-high four assists per game in 2013-14.

Rick Harris knows that the Knights will have to go through Dean to win the Region XXI championship, but right now he’s worried about his team and getting better.

An x-factor for CCRI will be the willingness of its players to put aside personal agendas for the good of the team. If the players buy in to a team-first mentality, then the Knights should be there at the end competing for a championship.

“Our ultimate goal is to win the region and move on the districts,” Rick Harris said.

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