Raffa

[haggyland]

Forgot to add the disclaimer:

 

"Some student-athletes listed below have received full athletic scholarships,

others are attending college under other arrangements.

Not all of these athletes intend to compete in sports at the college level.

These college commitments are based on the most recent information.

More will be added as they are announced."

[Dane Pound]

I really don't now anything about the conference. Haggy posted the commitments for this year and I think last year they sent a player to NC State and another to Holy Cross. All I really need to know is Coach Brown offered and had good things to say about him.

 

Those number seem fanastic no matter who the competition is. Not to mention that by this point in the season every coach they play against is coming up with some way to slow him down.

 

 

Raffa's team beat St. Augustine's last night.

 

Wildwood Catholic grabs upset

 

Wildwood Catholic grabs upset Augustine Crusaders' 20-5 run to start game helps to foil St. Augustine

By MICHAEL McGARRY Staff Writer, (609) 272-7185

Published: Wednesday, January 24, 2007

NORTH WILDWOOD — Fans of the Wildwood Catholic High School boys basketball team stood and roared the entire game Tuesday night.

The Crusaders never gave them a chance to sit down or be quiet.

 

Anthony Raffa scored 33 points as Wildwood Catholic upset St. Augustine Prep 67-60 in a Cape-Atlantic League National Conference game. The Crusaders jumped out to a 20-5 lead. St. Augustine is No. 2 in The Press' Elite 11.

 

Wildwood Catholic fans rushed the court when the buzzer sounded. They lifted up Raffa, who raised the game ball above his head.

 

“They're all my friends,” Raffa said. “We get real excited when we win big games. All of our family, friends and school were here. It's a great win for our program.”

 

St. Augustine (12-2) still leads the conference with a 9-1 record. But Wildwood Catholic (12-3) is close behind with an 8-2 conference mark.

“This is a very, very big win,” Wildwood Catholic coach Dave DeWeese said. “I believe they're the best team in South Jersey.”

 

Raffa, a senior guard, leads the area in scoring with a 30.2 average. He used his quickness to consistently beat the taller Hermits to the basket.

 

But the Crusaders need scoring from others besides Raffa to beat the Hermits, and they got it.

 

Forward Scott DeWeese, the coach's son, scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Guard Pat Kelly scored all seven of his points it the final eight minutes. The two combined to sink 9-of-12 fourth-quarter foul shots.

 

DeWeese also excelled on defense helping guard St. Augustine big men Eugene Teague and Jack Crawford.

 

“We see flashes of brilliance from my son, but we never see consistent brilliance,” coach DeWeese said. “I thought he played a complete game.”

 

Wildwood Catholic slouched inside against Teague and Crawford, both 6-foot-6 juniors. The Crusaders dared St. Augustine to shoot 3-pointers. The Hermits could not consistently sink shots from beyond the arc. St. Augustine's best outside shooter, Andrew Kirey, is out for the season with a broken wrist suffered in last Saturday's win over Metuchen.

 

“We wanted to force them to shoot from the perimeter,” coach DeWeese said. “That was our game plan before Kirey got hurt. Then he got hurt, and it played right into our game plan.”

 

Raffa sparked the Crusaders to their fast start.

 

“One of our assistant coaches said just play like maniacs,” Raffa said. “Play with your heart and do everything right. We came out on fire.”

 

He scored eight of Wildwood Catholic's first 15 points as the Crusaders built a 12-point lead five minutes into the game.

 

They didn't let up.

 

Clark Hindelang sank a 3-pointer and Chris Garriott scored on a layup off a Raffa pass to give the Crusaders a 20-5 advantage with 1 minute, 10 seconds left in the first quarter.

 

St. Augustine coach Paul Rodio called two timeouts to try to stop Wildwood Catholic's early dominance.

 

“You can't go down that bad,” Rodio said. “Give them credit. You spend all energy coming back.”

 

St. Augustine never caught Wildwood Catholic. The closest the Hermits got was two points down in the fourth quarter. A DeWeese layup immediately pushed the Crusaders' lead back to four. DeWeese sank three layups in the fourth quarter.

 

“We have a lot of good guards,” DeWeese said. “I get open, find my spot, and they got me the ball. This is what you practice for. When you get the opportunity, you have to take it.”

 

The Hermits hurt themselves with poor foul shooting. They sank 2-of-6 free-throw attempts in the final 1:11 and finished the game 13 for 28 from the foul line.

 

“We had numerous opportunities, and we didn't take advantage,” Rodio said. “We had them rattled, and we didn't take advantage.”

 

The victory avenged Wildwood Catholic's 79-72 season-opening loss at St. Augustine.

 

Fans were packed into every corner of Wildwood Catholic's gym.

 

“The fans came out and really supported us,” coach DeWeese said. “)The Hermits) came back at us, and we were able to withstand all their runs. That's a credit to our team.”

 

 

To e-mail Michael McGarry at The Press:

 

MMcGarry@pressofac.com

 

St. Augustine 10 13 15 22 — 60

 

Wildwood Catholic 20 12 12 23 — 67

 

SA — Carr 2 1-1 5, Hullings 1 0-0 3, Shaughnessy 1 0-0 2, Teague 5 4-10 14, Crawford 1 3-5 5, Thompson 4 2-2 11, colon 5 0-2 11, Giberson 1 2-4 5, Puhalski 1 0-0 3, Chapman 0 1-4 1. Totals — 21 13-28 60

 

WC — Raffa 13 7-9 33, Haas 1 0-0 2, Hindelang 2 0-0 5, Kelly 1 5-6 7, DeWeese 4 4-6 12, Garriott 2 0-0 4, smith 1 0-0 2, Flynn 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 16-21 67.

 

3-pointers — Hullings, Thompson, Colon Giberson Puhalski SA; Hindelang WC.

 

RECORDS — Wildwood Catholic 12-3

[haggyland]

Sorry about that, DP. I saw that your time stamp was from yesterday, but I did not notice that you edited the post. Anyways,

 

Big win in game #15 for Wildwood Catholic. Raffa scores 33. Crowd storms the court. Raffa gets lifted up by the crowd. Nice article gets written.

[Dane Pound]

A little more of Raffa today in a story about potential Player of the Year candidates in the Courier Post:

 

"Anthony Raffa, Wildwood Catholic - This senior guard is the grittiest player in South Jersey. No one brings the intensity more. He beat Holy Spirit and led the Crusaders to an upset of St. Augustine. Everyone knows `Raffa.'"

 

Also a story about St. Augustine's before they lost to Wildwood Catholic:

 

St. Augustine Prep has run roughshod over its opponents. In addition to a 59-34 drubbing of Holy Spirit Thursday, the Hermits topped Pleasantville by 14 points and Middle Township by 12.

 

The Hermits stayed at No. 3 in the South Jersey rankings Monday.

 

Their dominance is surprising, since they began the year with question marks in the backcourt. The Cape-Atlantic League's National Division is awash with future Division I college guards like Wildwood Catholic's Anthony Raffa and Spirit's Brian Crilley, so a one-dimensional approach with 6-8 Gene Teague and 6-6 Jack Crawford wouldn't work.

 

The team right ahead of the Hermits in the polls, Winslow Twp., starts Prep transfer Brandon Jones in its backcourt.

 

Midway through the season, though, backcourt play has proved a strength. Though the Hermits don't have a 25-points-per-game scorer like Raffa or a true point like Vineland's Hassan Williams, they have a wide range of personnel to plug into any situation.

 

"We have the best group of guards in South Jersey," Crawford said. "They can play with anybody."

 

Mike Shaughnessy (6-foot-2) and Josh Thompson (6-3) can bring the ball up one play and move to small forward the next. Andrew Kirey is a relentless defender, and 5-7 Mike Hullings (5-7) brings a pass-first mentality off the bench.

 

The versatile approach works because the Hermits focus on defense. Spirit, for instance, seemed to have the edge in guard play coming in, but St. Augustine made the Spartans' guards look ordinary with unyielding man-to-man pressure.

 

"They threw the ball right to us two or three times because they didn't quite recognize the setup that we had," Prep coach Paul Rodio said. "It was basically just man-to-man, but different forms of man-to-man."

[haggyland]

28 in Game # 16 for Raffa, a "surprising" loss:

 

St. Joe boys pull out surprising win over No. 10 Crusaders

Published: Friday, January 26, 2007

From Press staff reports

The St. Joseph boys basketball team's playoff hopes remain alive thanks to a 48-47 win over Wildwood Catholic, ranked 10th in The Press' Elite 11, Thursday evening.

 

The Wildcats held Crusaders star Anthony Raffa to just six points in the second half. Raffa, a 6-foot-1 guard who leads the area averaging 30.4 points per game, finished with 28 points, including three 3-pointers.

 

“Our team played great defense all night,” St. Joseph head coach Tim Gallagher said. “We had (6-foot-6 forward) Norman White guard Raffa, and he did an excellent job.”

 

With just eight seconds remaining, St. Joseph had a 46-45 lead. Brandon Sharp was fouled and made both free throws to give the Wildcats a three-point lead.

 

 

 

 

The Crusaders had one final chance for the win when Raffa tossed up a 3-point shot that bounced off the rim. The ball was tipped in by a Crusader under the basket as time expired, but it was too little too late.

“Right now everyone is pretty excited,” Gallagher said. “The student section rushed the court. The atmosphere was great. But we have to get back to work and get ready for St. Augustine.”

 

The Wildcats will need to defeat St. Augustine, No. 4 in the Press' Elite 11, on the road Monday at 7 p.m. to have a shot at making the playoffs.

 

“If we play like we did tonight, we can beat anyone,” Gallagher said.

 

 

Wildwood Catholic 9 17 8 13 —47

 

St. Joseph 12 12 11 13 — 48

 

W — Raffa 11 3-4 28, Haas 3 0-0 6, Kelly 4 1-2 9, Garriott 1 0-0 2 Smith 0 2-2 2. Totals: 19 6-8 47.

 

S — Cooper 2 0-0 4, Todoro 1 0-0 2, Arena 1 0-1 2, Heffner 1 0-0 2, Senese 1 7-8 10, Sharp 1 6-7 8, White 5 7-10 20. Totals: 13 20-25 48.

 

3-pointers — Raffa (3) W; Senese, White S.

 

RECORDS — St. Joseph 8-10, Wildwood Catholic 12-4.

[SienaTony]

Not sure if someone already posted this and if so I apologize. If not enjoy, looks like Albany got a good one in Raffa

 

[B9j2j6s]

you know Raffa game reminds me a lot of Trimboli.

[Dane Pound]

Thanks for the link Tony. You'll probably figure it out but Raffa is #11

[Clickclack]

Thanks Tony, great clip. This guy has a swagger to him, kind of cocky. Good for us, but I'm sure it might enough the hell out of the competition. Can't wait for this guy to get here.

[GDBD]

Thanks Tony, great clip. This guy has a swagger to him, kind of cocky. Good for us, but I'm sure it might enough the hell out of the competition. Can't wait for this guy to get here.

Thanks for the clip! 2 things come immediately to mind: swagger (not original -but I felt the same quality) & look at the tiny gym The world is a lot bigger - even here I Hope the head is as solid as the shot seems

A lot to look forward to. GDBD

[GODANESGO]

Thanks for the link Tony. That's a pretty sick team! Excited to see how Raffa's speed and ability to get the the hoop translates at the DI level.

[alum73]

Thanks Tony. There were quite a few minutes of some games. He is "confident".

[haggyland]

Raffa Dabba Doo...

Wildwood Catholic scores a big win in Game #17, paced by Mr. Raffa with 36 (But one missed dunk.)

 

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/sports/...p-7013878c.html

[purplehaze]

I hope Mr. Raffa lives up to his press clippings. If so, we are getting one helluva hoops player and the attitude to go along with it!

[haggyland]

Spreadsheet of game-to-game scoring for you all (too much time on my hands):

Is there any way to make this table look better?

 

Game # Date Points Average Outcome Opponent

1 15-Dec 46 46.00 L St. Augustine

2 17-Dec 33 39.50 W Ocean City

3 19-Dec 26 35.00 W St. Joe's

4 21-Dec 36 35.25 W Pleasantville

5 23-Dec 31 34.40 W LCMR

6 27-Dec 45 36.17 W G.Wash. (PA)

7 28-Dec 24 34.43 L Winslow T'ship

8 31-Dec 23 33.00 W Wildwood

9 2-Jan 27 32.33 L Middle T'ship

10 4-Jan 26 31.70 W CMT

11 8-Jan 25 31.09 W Sacred Heart

12 11-Jan 27 30.75 W Buena

13 16-Jan 23 30.15 W Holy Spirit

14 19-Jan 31 30.21 W Bridgeton

15 23-Jan 33 30.40 W St. Augustine

16 25-Jan 28 30.25 L St. Joe's

17 29-Jan 36 30.59 W Pleasantville

18 1-Feb 30.59 Middle T'ship

19 5-Feb 30.59 CMT

20 8-Feb 30.59 Sacred Heart

21 13-Feb 30.59 Buena

22 15-Feb 30.59 Holy Spirit

23 18-Feb 30.59 Haddonfield

24 20-Feb 30.59 Bridgeton

25 23-Feb 30.59 Wildwood