Lawrence Woodmere White falls to unbeaten Rome Free Academy

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Lawrence Woodmere Academy White and unbeaten Rome Free Academy, a Class AAA public school in Oneida County, were deadlocked after one quarter Sunday afternoon.

But the tide would soon shift in favor of RFA, which emphatically took command in the second quarter.

Utilizing a frantic press in which it would immediately double-team the ball-handler, RFA scored 22 of the final 27 first-half points. It took a double-digit lead with 2:26 left in the second quarter and never let the Tigers within single digits again.

LWA trailed by as many as 29 in a 90-67 boys basketball loss in the Hoophall Invitational at Rebecca M. Johnson School.

“I think their pressure hurt us because we turned the ball over way too much,” LWA coach Hank Williams said. “So their pressure hurt us, and they moved the ball extremely well. They were very, very patient, and we couldn’t really run our stuff because of the different defenses they were kind of throwing at us. We couldn’t really run our stuff, and we didn’t really move the ball well at all.”

RFA guard Uzziah Grimes was virtually unguardable with 40 points, hitting seven three-pointers.

“Our guys, we have to have better discipline,” said sophomore guard Hank Williams, the coach’s son. “If their strength is shooting the three-ball, then we have to find a way to get out on [Grimes] and make him do something else.”

Junior guard Nick Anson scored 17 points, including 15 in the third quarter, to lead LWA (4-7). Williams scored 13 points, and 6-10 junior power forward Sylvanus Tabe – in just his second game after recovering from knee surgery – and 5-9 eighth-grade point guard Ethan Henry each had 12.

RFA (9-0) was a Section III AAA semifinalist last season.

The Tigers, an independent, went 0-3 in the Hoophall Invitational, losing to undefeated Glens Falls, 57-51, on Saturday and to Lincoln-Sudbury (Sudbury, Mass.), 48-38, later Sunday afternoon on the back half of a rare basketball doubleheader.

LWA White has three eighth-graders and two freshmen on its team, which is a de facto developmental team to LWA Blue, an independent team playing a national schedule.

The Tigers have six remaining regular-season games and will apply to play in the NYSAIS postseason state tournament.

“The goal is to, first, be over .500,” the younger Williams said. “The second one is that, if we’re not, we’re trying to compete for a state championship. For me to say that, people probably think I’m crazy. But with the work that I’m going to make sure and Coach Williams is going to make sure we’re going to have put into these next couple weeks, it’s going to be very intense.

“We’re not backing down from anybody, no matter how our record is or how we look or how young we are.”