Johnston Boys Lose to Hendricken, 81-52

rallied to reduce a 19-point deficit, but the Hendricken Hawks stymied the comeback bid and went on to defeat the Panthers, 81-52, in Providence last night.

Senior Isaac Medeiros scored 21 points in his last game as a Panther, including a pair to draw Johnston within nine points of Hendricken during the second half, but he and his teammates could not overcome the Hawks and their hot-handed three-point specialist, Steven Bevilacqua.

Bevilacqua buried six three-pointers prior to intermission, helping his team to a 43-24 lead at halftime.

“We were in his face. He kept going out farther,” said Johnston head coach Stephen DeMeo.

“Some of those were like 24-, 25-footers. I wish I could’ve shot like that.”

Bevilacqua scored just eight points after the break, matching the second-half output of Johnston’s Ryan Anderson. The junior guard notched 13 overall, including six from beyond the arc.

Medeiros poured in 11 during the latter stanza, highlighted by a three-point play to initiate a 17-5 run for Johnston. The senior forward capped the surge with two more shortly thereafter, and the Panthers trailed, 58-49.

Hendricken proceeded to score the next 15 points, however, finding ways to generate offensive opportunities without Bevilacqua’s sharp shooting.

“It just seems like you make adjustments, you pull the guy out, but the kid Bevilacqua’s good enough to see where we cheated and find the open man,” DeMeo said.

“That’s why they’re seven-time champs. They’re smart. They’re great athletes. They’re well coached.”

Anderson responded with three from the left wing, but Hendricken’s Nick Bourdeau proceeded to extend the Hawks’ lead with back-to-back dunks, punctuating the victory.

Hendricken will return to Providence Tuesday for a quarterfinal meeting with Tiverton.

Johnston will renew its quest for a postseason championship in the fall, without Medeiros, David Bubar, Bret Simas, Zachary Podmaska, Chris Fagbote, Tony Parente and Samuel Briggs.

“You grow fond of these guys. You’re part of their lives,” DeMeo said.

“You’re family, and that’s what we try and instill anyway, that it’s more of a family here.

Though DeMeo looks forward to working with the athletes that will be available to him next season, the Panthers will miss the seniors and Medeiros, especially, both on and off the court.

“He never got a big head out of this whole thing,” DeMeo said, referring to the McDonald’s All-American nominee

“He’s just as goofy now as he was when he was a 14-year-old freshman. He’s always been that way.

“He’s a competitor on the floor and he’s a hard-working great kid, but he’s just a loveable guy.”

As a senior, Medeiros led Johnston to a league-best 17-1 record, a Division III North regular season crown and the No. 1 seed in the Division III tournament.

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