Xaverian 54 Farrell 46

Jack Alesi admits that he occasionally has flashbacks to last year.

“Sometimes I look down the bench and see the ghosts of Levance and Saiquon,” the Xaverian head coach said.

But both Levance Fields and Saiquon Stone are gone, Fields at Pitt and Stone at prep school. The two seniors erupted at this time a season ago to lead the Clippers to an improbable CHSAA AA city championship after an awful start to the year.

And although the Clippers don’t have quite the senior leadership they did during their title run, they do have Brian McKenzie.

“Last year’s team had more experience, but those guys brought me along with them,” said the 6-4 McKenzie. “Now it’s my job to not try to be the leading scorer, but be the general and push them.”

He did a good job of that yesterday in the outbracket round of the CHSAA playoffs, scoring 10 points, while also getting key rebounds and drawing charges, to lead Xaverian to a 54-46 win over Msgr. Farrell at Holy Cross.

“Brian is the only one who really played with us and went on that ride we had last year,” Alesi said. “Now we have a lot of young players and he’s been really patient with these guys.”

McKenzie, who will play at Providence next year, admitted that it hasn’t always been easy.

“At one point, I got frustrated,” McKenzie said. “I was the veteran and I knew what I had to do and everyone else was just figuring it out. But these young guys are good.”

Among them is junior Zamal Nixon, who made four straight free throws midway through the fourth quarter after Farrell’s dynamic point guard, James Hett, tied the game at 39-39 by hitting a layup with 5:59 remaining.

Still, for all the talent the Xaverian underclassmen have, there is no replacing the confidence and experience last year’s team possessed.

“It’s like night and day,” Alesi said of coaching the two teams. “I find myself being more vocal. I don’t have the luxury of getting the ball into Levance’s hands and letting him do the rest.”

The Clippers recovered after letting an early 25-10 lead slip away. McKenzie said he was able to look back on what they did last year to make sure they didn’t falter.

“I had no idea what was going on when we were winning all those games,” McKenzie said. “I was unconscious. But now I realize what we were able to do and what our goals need to be.”

While a repeat title is unlikely, McKenzie showed that even though Fields and Stone are no longer on the team, they haven’t been forgotten.

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In another outbracket game, St. Raymond defeated St. Francis Prep, 61-45, behind Daryl Bryant’s 13 points.