Skippers Go Down Fighting

Providence — Despite a tremendous effort from junior Rob Hazard and senior Derryck Kilgore, the North Kingstown High boys basketball dropped an 81-74 decision to Central High in overtime Tuesday at the Providence Career and Technical Center.

The Skippers were trailing 69-66 with seven seconds remaining when Hazard took an inbounds pass at half court from junior Mike Scott. Hazard then dribbled directly to the left wing where he found enough of an opening to rise up and drilled a three-pointer as time expired to force overtime.

“That’s a tremendous shot from Rob,” North Kingstown head coach Aaron Thomas said. “I would expect him to take that shot knowing Rob.”

“We’re confident in Rob every time he shoots. I was under the basket and it looked good, so I knew it was going in,” Kilgore added.

The extra session would belong to Central’s Rob Lewis, however, as the Knights’ senior captain scored 10 of his game-high 28 points in the overtime.

“I didn’t think that we were going to lose after that. The momentum was there for us so I thought we were just going to grab it, but it just ended as a loss,” Hazard said.

None of the 11 field goals he made during the game were bigger than a three-pointer he buried from the right wing with 23 seconds remaining in overtime to give Central a 78-74 lead.

The three, which came on the heels of a Scott triple at the other end, was converted fading away with a pair of Skippers in his face. 

“When you’re a shooter you’ve got to let shooters shoot. You’re going to force some shots,” Central head coach Todd Keefe said. “I live and die with them.”

North Kingstown would not even have been in the position they were had not been the play of Kilgore and Hazard. 

In addition to Hazard’s big three-pointer he led the Skippers in scoring with 27 points, while Kilgore always seemed to be there to get a bucket when the North Kingstown offense struggled on his way to 20 points.

“We’re two of our best players, so I felt that me and him were going to work together and take it, but it didn’t happen,” Hazard said.

Outside of getting a win, it was a fitting performance in what might have been the last game in an NK uniform for both Kilgore and Hazard.

Kilgore, who is a graduating senior this year, has offers to play basketball from Division-III Lyndon State College, Catholic University and Clarkson University, but may elect to go the route of prep school next year.

“I think I’m going to prep school. I have a couple of schools that want me to come, but I’m going to play AAU right now and see where that takes me,” Kilgore said. “Coming into high school one of my main goals was to play in college after my senior season, so I just kept working hard to make that dream come true.”

As it would have it, Hazard may elect to go the same route as Kilgore, just a year sooner. As of Tuesday night Hazard was strongly leaning towards forgoing his senior season at North Kingstown to repeat his junior year at a prep school.

“I haven’t talked to him about it now, but I’m sure that’s going to be debated and stuff like that,” Thomas said. “I would hope that he comes back, but I don’t think it’s something that I can control either way.”

Regardless of what the two Skippers elect to do, they, along with their teammates, can certainly be proud of their final showing of the 2010-11 season against Central.

“We played hard. We had a good team and we gave it everything we had out there. You can’t be mad,” Kilgore said.

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