Although Derby finished the season at 1 – 19 with a 59 – 50 loss to Watertown at home on Senior Night, it hung tough throughout and remained in striking distance for most of the game.
Watertown raised its record to 8 – 12 and qualified for the Class M tournament.
“We competed for the most part tonight and got a strong effort,” Red Raiders coach Dave Scrivens said. “Watertown played for its season tonight. We had four seniors start and we were fired up. The effort was strong in practice and there are no complaints.”
After falling behind 4 – 0, Derby came back and in fact, led twice in the first quarter. Junior Rashwan Hendricks (15 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, three forced turnovers, one charge drawn) ignited the Red Raiders all night and kept them in the game.
“I just wanted the seniors to end the year on a good note,” Hendricks said. “We didn’t have a good year this year but we’re better than our record.”
Hendricks made the plays on defense all night and deftly set up his teammates. Following a steal, he set up senior co-captain DeSean McBride’s layup with an outlet pass.
“I tried to lock up on my man and play great defense,” Hendricks said.
Watertown took the lead for good at 15 – 13 on junior Matt Quatrano’s (15 points) reverse layup to start the second quarter. The Indians built their lead to six at 23 – 21 and they constantly built their lead up to six or eight points for the rest of the half and all of the third quarter.
“They had a couple of nice runs and at times, we struggled with defensive rebounding,” Scrivens said.
Also contributing for Derby were senior Nick Estwan (one rebound) and sophomores Tim Adanti (three rebounds, one blocked shot) and Chris Estwan (two rebounds).
The Red Raiders are confident that next year is better. They missed junior Allan Marcelin, who was injured and is expected to contribute next year.
“We haven’t won a league game in three or four years and we hope to change that,” Scrivens said.
