Marauders Blow by Weston for First Win

Dedham boys' basketball (1-2) played undoubtedly its best game of the season thus far Thursday night as they took care of the Weston Wildcats (0-4) at home, 56-36.

The Marauders opened up a huge lead early, scoring the first 19 points of the game (14-0 first quarter) and preventing the Wildcats from getting on the board until six minutes left in the second quarter. Dedham was involved in another first-quarter shutout Tuesday evening, however they were on the opposite end and eventually fell to Wellesley 54-36.

"It's a little weird," said Dedham head coach Ed Hickey. "I've never really seen that before, let alone twice in the same season."

Junior center Vincent Iarrobino led the first-half stampede with nine points and five rebounds and played an integral role in the fast-paced Marauder offense.   Dedham's ball movement seemed effortless, leading to a flurry of high-percentage shots. Hickey's squad took a comfortable 27-11 lead into the half, knowing they have struggled historically with maintaining leads late in games.

"It's one of the things we haven't always done well with over the last year or two but you have to keep up the defensive intensity and continue to execute," Hickey said. And that they did, continually piling onto the lead, which made its way to 27 at one point early in the fourth quarter.

The scoring started to even out for Dedham in the second half, as junior Rohit Kumar finished with 11 and junior Mike Ryan contributed with 10 points and eight boards. Sophomore Nick Tarintono had six points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks, and especially tonight, had been "working some nice high low combinations with (Iarrobino)" said Hickey about his two starting big men.

The win gives the Marauders much needed momentum going into Winter break, and for his young team, Hickey feels the win is a great confidence boost.

"It's huge," said Hickey. "We have a whole new starting lineup form last year with no returning starters so it builds some confidence up. We still have a lot of work to do to compete with the teams in our league but we made some steps forward tonight and we're excited for the win."

Dedham will have the next two weeks off and will return to action at home against Weymouth High on January 4th.