By Dylan Butler
He would show flashes of that potential from time to time, but there would be no consistency, which led to more questions about the 6-foot-9 forward.But finally, with the end of his high school career clearly in sight, Jolicoeur is playing the best basketball of his life. And his team, which has been just as streaky this season, has followed suit. Jolicoeur had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Holy Cross defeated Archbishop Molloy, 62-56 in front of a standing room only crowd at Jack Curran Gymnasium Friday night.”It's more from urgency,” Jolicoeur said of his play this past month. “These are my last couple games as a senior. If I don't do it now, I won't be able to do it next year.”The victory clinched the No. 2 seed for the Knights in the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan tournament, which started Monday and concludes Friday night at Bishop Ford.”We came in second place last year also, but with a very senior-laden, experienced team,” Holy Cross coach Paul Gilvary said. “This is basically a whole new team and yet they accomplished the same thing.”One of the knocks on Jolicoeur, and of so many other high school forwards, is that he tries to do too much. He would pop out and shoot a three-pointer instead of dominate in the paint. But against the Stanners and against forward Morgan Kelly, who is 6-foot-8 and has a similarly sinewy frame, Jolicoeur, who is being courted by Fairfield, Bucknell and Lafayette, kept his game inside and it paid off for the Knights.But it was far from a one-man show for Holy Cross (13-11, 6-5). With Rocco Rubino holding sophomore sensation Sylven Landesberg to 10 points and 11 rebounds, Trinity Fields exploded for a career-high 19 points, going 4-for-5 from three-point range.”It could be better, but it was alright,” Fields said of his outside shot. “Everyone can get there's. If I'm down, Sylven will pick me up. That's the strength of the team, we always have another weapon.”In his final home game, Milan Prodanovic scored a game-high 24 points, Rubino added 10 and Molloy (13-10, 4-7) went 16-for-17 from the foul line. But Holy Cross went 14-of-18 from the line in the fourth quarter alone and took the lead for good on a Fields three-pointer with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.”Laurence has taken his game to a whole different level, he's a totally different player now,” said Prodanovic, who will play at Iona College next year. “Senior Night, my last game [at home], it's sad that we lost.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
