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As guard Ricky Lindo's grown, so have the Wilson Tigers

<p>The Wilson Tigers gather in a huddle at the annual Tiger Madness event.</p>

“We’re on a good roll…I don’t like to count my eggs before they hatch but we’re doing pretty well.”

Wilson Head Coach Angelo Hernandez is humble as he talks about his Tigers’ recent success, but by ‘pretty well’, he means the longest winning streak in program history.

Nineteen games in-a-row, this group has walked off the court victors. The most recent win, earned Wednesday night at Ballou, a team that handed the Tigers one of the five consecutive losses that capped the prior season and left a 17-11 Wilson squad with a burn for more winning in the coming year.

So far, they’ve delivered, suffering the sting of defeat twice since the start of this season, and at the start of it, in fact - those losses now buried in the rearview mirror. Both came at the hands of Top 15 teams in now No. 14 Maret and No. 6 St. John’s – the Cadets finishing with just a one-point advantage.

Both games were the only contests played without guard Ricardo “Ricky” Lindo.

An ankle sprain delayed Lindo’s return to action this year. But since the junior dove back in, he’s showed how important he is to this team. Through eleven games, he’s averaged 13.9 points and provided the spark necessary in stringing together results the way Wilson has.

In a nearly forty-point mid-December win over Friendly, Lindo had his first dominant performance of the year, making four shots from long range to finish with 33 total points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks.

The blocks -- a relatively new feature of Lindo’s arsenal. That column on his stat sheet is beefier now that Lindo’s 6’7” frame nearly fits a different position description.

“I’m probably like the tallest guard in D.C. probably,” Lindo said shyly, a characteristic he’s still growing accustomed to.

Lindo measures six inches taller than he did last spring.

“I have like five pairs of pants in my closet I can’t fit. I thought I could fit them but when I put them up, they’re up to here….to my ankles,” Lindo said shyly as he pointed to the bottom of his long legs.

“He’s still filling out his body and he’s still feeling out his game but he’s starting to see he’s bigger than a lot of other kids,” the eight-year Wilson coach said. “He’s a guard, so it’s not like he’s playing center. He’s dribbling up and down, sees all the smaller kids and is like, ‘Do I just go over top of them or what do I do?”

“H”, as Lindo calls him, said one of the things he most admires about his guard is that he’s “never comfortable.” Though added height can bring with it greater ego, Lindo plays with a humble and eager approach, unwilling to slide by on stature alone.

“He tries to use everything to his advantage at this point. Double-digit rebounds is important to him…not just points because you’re not gonna be able to take everybody off the dribble all the time. Sometimes it’s just the rebound, put it back, get two points.”

The fact that Lindo intrinsically understands the value of producing more than just points and is happy to execute accordingly should serve him well as he works towards extending his playing career past high school. And thus far, Lindo’s positioned himself well in terms of having options. A combination of the physical growth, work ethic, and a 3.8 GPA – with four AP classes part of his course load -- have put schools on notice.

He holds offers from Canisius, Bowling Green, and Mt. St. Mary’s, but his recent play has brought in extra attention. Earlier in the week, Yale took a visit to the school, to add to interest from Stanford, Maryland, George Washington, George Mason, Columbia, Kansas State, Lehigh, Davidson, Hampton, and Towson.

“He could be a special player in the city, and I hope that people take notice to it,” Hernandez said.

Lindo really has a chance to make a noticeable impact at the end of the month, when the Tigers take on a pair of rivals in two of DC’s most competitive teams: Theodore Roosevelt and H.D. Woodson. The Rough Riders and the Warriors went head-to-head in the DCIAA championship.

“They gave us quite a bit of a challenge last time we played them. They beat us last year so we still have a bad taste in our mouth from that so we wanna avenge that, play better against them.”

Wilson beat Roosevelt earlier this season but last February, fell to both those squads by a combined 23 points – part of that five-game losing streak that capped the ’15-’16 season.

This time, the Tigers hope those contests will be part of a different streak, one that extends their historic roll of W’s.

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