BRANDEN MELLO

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BARRINGTON — Coventry coach Bill Tarvis made one thing abundantly clear after the Oakers’ II-South regular-season finale with Barrington; his Oakers will play with more intensity and more energy when they begin the Division II playoffs Tuesday night against either Pilgrim or Tolman.

And the Oakers better play with more energy and enthusiasm or they could see their goal of making the Ryan Center end at the first hurdle.

The Eagles, whose sole motivation Friday night was to play well in front of a packed gymnasium on senior night, sent the Oakers into the playoffs with a 56-45 loss. The final score flattered the visitors because the Oakers were down 16 points at halftime and 16 points with 3 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the game.

In the big picture, it would be nice to finish up 12-6 and finish strong going into to the playoffs,” Tarvis said. “But, I’ll guarantee you this; on Tuesday I guarantee you will see a totally different team. Obviously every shot Barrington threw up, they hit. It was good for them, good for their seniors and they crowd got into it.

“I think we were looking ahead. We had such a great game against Mt Hope (an 87-46 win) and we came in here just figuring we were going to roll over them. Unfortunately we got ourselves in such a big hole we couldn’t get out of it.”

If the season had been just one week longer, the Eagles might have been one of the teams you wouldn’t want to see in the first round of the playoffs. Led by a strong senior corps of Andy Engvall, Zachary Green and Mike Meade, the Eagles won their last three games of the season to fall just one win short of the playoffs.

But, Barrington head coach Patrick Sullivan wasn’t playing the what-if game after his team finished the season 7-11.

“I was thinking to myself ‘can you think about the one game that could have prolonged your season,’” Sullivan said. “You know what? I think every game we wish we had, there was a game we stole if you will. It all balances out. Would I like to be in the playoffs? Absolutely, but I feel really good about what this team accomplished.”

What the Eagles did Friday night was beat what Sullivan called one of the two or three best teams in all of Division II. Sophomore Connor Fiske led the Eagles with 12 points, while Green also had 12 points and three 3-pointers. Meade added nine points.

Even though they scored just 13 points in the first half, the Oakers were only down one point five minutes into the half. Jon Ruest, who started in place of Adam Cloutier, scored three early points. But, because they were simply outhustled on the boards, the Oakers gave up a back-breaking 14-0 run which was started by a Fiske 3-pointer.

Coventry went over seven minutes without a basket to fall behind 25-7. Trevor DiMicco, who had a team-high 13 points and 11 rebounds, scored with 2:29 left in the half to end the Oakers’ drought.

“We were just flat, flat, flat,” Tarvis said. “We missed open layups. We had open looks, in the first half especially, and we didn’t hit any of them. I just think we were flat and our minds were looking ahead. You can’t be flat and expect to go out and win. I think tonight was a good example of that.”

The conventional wisdom for a Coventry comeback would have been for the Oakers to come out strong to start the half and quiet the crowd. But it didn’t work out that way because Barrington actually stretched its lead out to 21 points midway thought the second half.

Brandon Dipaola, who had seven points, began Coventry’s fight back with 7:43 remaining in the half when he scored on a three-on-two. Four minutes after Dipaola’s hoop, the Oakers were down just 42-33 thanks to nine points from DiMicco and a basket by Ruest.

Barrington, after a timeout, extinguished the Oakers’ comeback hopes with a 7-0 run thanks to two baskets from Meade.

“With seven seniors we could have gone one of two ways when we were eliminated from the playoffs,” Sullivan said. “We could have packed it in or we could play hard. I knew we could compete at this level and we finished it off with three wins in a row against the likes of Rogers, East Greenwich and Coventry. And, I think Coventry is one of the better teams in Division II.

Last season the Oakers were red hot entering the playoffs to earn the No. 2 seed. The Oakers’ rode their regular-season momentum all the way to the Division II semifinals. This season, the Oakers will simply need to regroup at practice Monday after a much-needed day off today.

“Easy, we take a day off tomorrow and go to the gym Monday and Tuesday and work hard,” Tarvis said. “The playoffs are the best time of the year because everything that happened before means nothing. “We’re focused on Tuesday and either Pilgrim or Tolman. I think that’s why we’re a dangerous team in the playoffs because we’re focused on just one game.”    

Barrington 56 Coventry 45

(At Barrington High)

COVENTRY (45) Stitchell 0 0-0 0, Finnegan 1 2-2 4, DiMicco 5 2-4 13, Dipaola 2 3-4 7, Greenwood 0 0-0 0, Lincoln 0 0-0 0, Ruest 4 2-4 11, Douglass 1 0-1 3, A. Cloutier 1 3-4 5, Willard 1 0-0 2, totals 15 12-19 45.

BARRINGTON (56) Green 4 1-4 12, Neilan 0 0-0 0, Chiulli 0 0-0 0, Zimmerman 1 0-1 3, Cohen 2 1-2 5, Newton 0 1-2 1, Crawford 0 0-0 0, Fiske 5 0-0 12, Brown 1 2-4 4, Engvall 5 0-2 10, Oliva 0 0-0 0, Meade 3 3-5 9, totals 21 8-20 56.

3-pointers – C, DiMicco, Ruest, Douglass B, Green 3, Fiske 2, Zimmerman.

Halftime – Barrington 29-13.