C-C Basketball Beats League Leaders

The Boys' Basketball Team beat the Dual County Small league leading Tyngsboro on Friday night, 43 to 40 in a fast-paced, evenly matched game. Edwin Delva, who was last year's leading scorer for the Patriots, injured his knee in the off-season and sat for most of this year's games. Delva made his season debut against Tyngsboro (6-2), and in tandem with Brima Rogers, propelled the Patriots(4-6) to its biggest win of the season.

“I'm happy with our effort,” said C-C's Coach David Cohen. “We tried everything out there. We went big on the court, then small. The last couple of years we've tried to beat people with our fast breaks, and we had to switch to something different this year without Delva. Now we can do both-- size and speed. It was great to see him back out there.”

The Patriots started the game ready for Tiger hunting. C-C jumped out to an early lead, scoring on three of their first four possessions. The team shot to an 8-4 lead, but their offense fell stagnant. The Patriots played great defense against the Tigers, contesting every shot, but they couldn't convert those turnovers to points on the other side. From the end of the first quarter through to the middle of the second only 10 points were scored.

C-C's Dana Hynes, and Henry Bumpus were constantly jostling for rebounds off of Tyngsboro's Michael Perkins and Garrett Glavin. Hynes used his height advantage to tip the ball out to his speedy guards, Rogers, Delva and Zach Dowd, and Bumpus made some acrobatic and athletic rebounds. It wasn't easy taking down rebounds for the team, though. Hynes drew three fouls in the game, and gave four. With such a low and close scoring contest every rebound was critical to the outcome of the game and both teams played with the necessary ferocity.

Finally, the basket drought was broken. Tyngsboro's Adam Byron sank two three pointers and the Tigers managed to even the game at 16-16. It was then that Delva and Rogers jumped into action. Rogers stole seven balls from Tyngsboro and used his speed to turn those turnovers into points. He scored 18 points in the game and assisted with most of Delva's 11 points.

“It was great to get to play with Delva again,” said Rogers. “I've been playing with Edwin since I was ten years old. This game sets the tempo for the rest of our season; we're gonna start winning.”

Delva gave the Patriots their first jolt of scoring to end the first half. He scored 6 points in the last two minutes to push the Patriots lead to 24-19.

Despite the duo's efforts, the Patriots became stuck in stretches of offensive stagnancy. They were one big shot away from ripping the game from the maw of the Tigers, but they couldn't create the separation. At the end of the 4^th quarter, Rogers scored 8 straight points to maintain the Patriot's lead, but the Tigers kept up. In the final minute of the game, with the score 40-37, the Tigers had possession of the ball and an opportunity to tie the game.

Rogers leapt in front of Tyngsboro's pass to get his final steal of the the game, dished it to Dowd at the corner of the crease, and Dowd sank it to deliver the Patriots the win.

“Rogers is the engine of our team,” said Cohen. “He gives us a great opportunity to get takeaways. And with our team holding most opposing teams to under 40 points a game, we have an opportunity to challenge anyone.”

The Patriots return to the courts on Tuesday against Weston High School.