CHSAA FINAL: Xaverian 67 – Rice 66
Saiquon Stone said that he and his teammates had learned from last year. He and fellow senior Levance Fields were determined not to make the same mistakes they made last year when Xaverian lost in the CHSAA AA city finals.
Last night, Stone proved he meant what he said.
Stone and Fields helped the Clippers overcome a nine-point third-quarter deficit to complete the season’s stunning turnaround with a 67-66 win over Rice last night in the championship game at Fordham. Rice will play St. Mary’s (Manhasset) at Fordham on Friday in the CHSAA state semifinals, with the winner meeting Xaverian in the title game on Sunday.
“We were here before and we were the ones who gave the game away,” Stone said. “This time, Rice was inexperienced and we made the plays.”
Brian McKenzie sealed the win with 20 seconds to go with a 3-pointer to give Xaverian a 67-63 lead. Rice’s Kashif Pratt knocked down a 3 with six seconds on the clock, but Rice had no timeouts left and Xaverian didn’t have to inbound the ball. The win was the first city title by a team other than Rice or St. Raymond’s since LaSalle won in 1998.
The 6-5 Stone scored 13 of his game-high 22 in the fourth quarter when he outplayed one of the best juniors in the country, Rice’s Curtis Kelly.
“We didn’t do what we needed to,” said Rice head coach Mo Hicks, whose team was led by Kelly’s 19 points. “And they made the plays they had to.”
Stone wasn’t surprised by his success.
“I know what he can do from playing with him so much over the summer,” Stone said. “It was just a matter of me doing it.”
His productivity helped give Xaverian its first AA title in school history after winning the B title in 1986. The Clippers seemed adrift throughout much of the heart of the season, at one point dropping seven out of eight games. But Fields regained his touch late in the season and Stone emerged as a consistent threat. That combination made Xaverian as dangerous as any of the other teams that entered the playoffs with more impressive records.
Head coach Jack Alesi knew that and was just waiting for it all to fall into place. When it finally did and the crown was theirs, the unflappable Alesi remained that way, even when he cut down the net and flipped it into the crowd.
“Words can’t describe what this means to our program,” said Alesi, who has been at the school since Chris Mullin starred there.
Fields scored five straight points late in the third and into the fourth quarter and then Stone began scoring nearly every time he touched the ball. He was named the tournament’s MVP, and while he spent most of the year as an unheralded counterpart to the high-profile Fields, those days appear to be over.
“This is the kind of stuff we knew he could do all year,” said Fields, who added 18 points. “In crunch time, he did it.”
