No. 8 Ranked Knights Outlast Roxbury 92-79!

01.28.22

Warwick, R.I. – January 28, 2022: The No. 8 ranked (NJCAA DIII Men’s Basketball Poll 1/24/22) CCRI Knights men’s Basketball team hosted the Tigers of Roxbury Community College at the Cullen Fieldhouse in Warwick Thursday evening.  The Knights defeated the Tigers 92-79. With the victory CCRI improves to 12-2 overall and 10-0 in Region XXI play.

The Knights were looking to remain perfect on Region XXI play versus a very formidable and relentless Roxbury Community College Tiger squad on Thursday evening at the Cullen Fieldhouse.

This contest had many ebbs and flows with the Knights trying to take control on their home court but Roxbury not relenting and fighting back to make this a very compelling match-up. The Knights got many of their players into the rhythm of the game in the first half and that would prove to be beneficial as the game progressed. Though there seven total players for the Knights who made it into the scoring column for CCRI in the first half, the lion’s share of the points came from their front court players led by co-captain Mitchell Noresca (East Providence, RI) who scored 10 points followed by Levi King (Westerly RI) who scored nine first half points including a 3-pointer. Their frontcourt mates Theo Jadotte (Providence, RI) and Michael Resnick (Gloucester, RI) added eight points apiece to help lead the Knights to a 45-33 halftime advantage.  Roxbury’s guard tandem of Kevin Agyemang and Roy Kalu kept the Tigers in the game with 18 and seven points respectively for the visitors.

Roxbury fired out of the gates in the second half utilizing a fierce 15-2 run to take a 48-47 lead with 16:25 left in the game. The Knights ratcheted-up their defense inserting Michael Resnick at the top of their ¾ court press and this proved to be advantageous as Resnick took the reins and put his mark on the game.  Soon after the CCRI press was installed Resnick stole the ball drove to the hoop where he was fouled, he made the first free throw but missed the second, however, persevered to get his own rebounds and put-back to give The Knights a 50-48 lead which they would not relinquish. Roxbury kept fighting with Kevin Agyemang who scored 16 of his game-high 34 points in the second half which included four of his six 3-pointers and Roy Kalu who added 15 points.  But it was Resnick along with co-captain Mitchel Noresca with seven, Theo Jadotte with eight and Co-captain Luke Fusaro (Charlestown, RI) with seven second half points that held off the relentless Roxbury squad as the Knights went on to win by the final count of 92-79.

Leading the way for the Knights was freshman forward Michael Resnick with a career-high 24 points while adding five steals, an assist, a blocked shot and a rebound. Co-captain Mitchel Noresca had 17 points with 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Also playing very well for CCRI was Theo Jadotte with 16 points, a game-high 17 rebounds with two steals, two blocked shots and an assist. Levi King scored 13 points with eight rebounds, two assists and a steal. Co-captain Luke Fusaro added 10 points with an assist.

With his 15 rebounds on Thursday Knights’ co-captain Mitchel Noresca moves into second place on the CCRI Career Rebounding List with 734 career rebounds passing Edvaldo Ferreira who had 725 career rebounds. Noresca needs just 28 rebounds to pass Walt “Stretch” Edwards who had 761 career rebounds.

The next game for the Knights will be Tuesday February 1^st at 7:00pm when they will host the Knights of Northern Essex Community College from Haverhill, MA for a Region XXI showdown.

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The Community College of Rhode Island, New England’s largest comprehensive community college, enrolls nearly 10,000 students in credit courses and thousands more in non-credit and job training classes. Its athletic program boasts 12 varsity programs and an academic support program for all student-athletes.