Woonsocket All-State shooting guard Antjuan Jones runs off with the ball, as St. Raphael’s Raymond Johnson gives chase in Tuesday’s game.

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Journal FILES/ Ruben W. Perez

Losing the starting frontcourt that drove last year’s team through a magical 18-3 season and to a heartbreaking overtime loss in the Division I state championship game would deflate the title hopes of many a team in the ensuing season.

But not Woonsocket High School. Nine players are back from the 2008 squad that came within three points of ending Bishop Hendricken’s four-year reign as state champion and winning Woonsocket’s first title, and they crave another chance to prove they are the best basketball team in Rhode Island.

“Losing in the final left a sour taste in their mouths. The focus of the guys is returning,” coach Kyle Ivey-Jones said Friday after practice. They’re off to a great start, 5-0, with their next test Tuesday night at Cumberland.

Woonsocket has a different look this season. Gone is the dominating front line of 6-7 center Michael Akinrola, a second-team All-State selection, 6-4 small forward Brett Coderre and 6-5 power forward Michael LaPlante. Akinrola is playing for Rhode Island College, Coderre played football for New England College, and LaPlante, a sophomore last season, transferred to St. Andrew’s. Akinrola and LaPlante combined for an average of 29 points per game a year ago. Coderre scored 15 in the 67-64 overtime loss to Hendricken in the final.

“There was a lot of length and a lot of athleticism there,” Ivey-Jones said, “and Brett was the glue to the team. The emphasis in their absence is on the backcourt trio of first-team All-State shooting guard Antjuan Jones, point guard Lee Vasquez and Tron R. Griffith, a transfer from Charlestown, Mass., and the third guard.

“I think I arguably have the best backcourt in the state,” Ivey-Jones said of Jones and Vasquez. Jones is quick and is averaging about four steals per game, Ivey-Jones said.

Jones is averaging 18 points and has scored at least 17 points in each of Woonsocket’s five victories in five games. He had 19 against Smithfield and Lincoln, 18 against St. Raphael, and 17 against Tolman and Ponaganset.

Vasquez has been steady, scoring 22 against Ponaganset and 19 against Lincoln and averaging 13.4.

Griffith, a junior, but has worked his way on to the floor as relief for Jones and Vasquez and as a starter when Ivery-Jones goes with a three-guard offense “to give opposing coaches something else to think about.”

Up front, Ivey-Jones has turned to 6-8 Nathan Geter, who has recovered from surgery on his left shoulder after suffering a season-ending injury right after the holidays a year ago. Small forward Wilfredo Almeida and power forward Semir Hasukic flank him.

Geter scored 11 points in the 74-35 injury-fund rout of Ponaganset, and 16 in the 57-51 triumph over St. Raphael last Tuesday. “He has long arms and reminds me of Moses Malone on offensive rebounds. He just tips the ball to himself,” Ivey-Jones said.

Almeida had 11 points in 70-50 romp over Lincoln, and Hasukic scored 10 against Lincoln, 11 in the 75-51 victory over Tolman, and 14 against St. Raphael. He is averaging 8.8.

Isaiah Scurry, at 6-4, 230 pounds, is a big presence off the bench. A senior, he scored eight points against Ponaganset and nine against Tolman.

The other returning players from last year’s team are seniors Kelly Desimpelaere and James Suber and junior Jose Merced.

Woonsocket has never won a state basketball championship since the Rhode Island Interscholastic League was formed, in 1932.

mszostak@projo.com