Scocca Wins Battle of Big Men as Red Raiders Beat Sachems

When they needed it most, the basketball team found it.

The Red Raiders put together what was undoubtedly its finest performance of the season, and picked up a crucial 52-37 win over Middlesex League opponents Winchester Tuesdaynight at Marcoux Gym.

It was a game that Melrose had to have, and despite the quality of the team on the other bench, was labeled as a “must-win” by Red Raiders head coach Mike Kasprzak.

“This was really the only game that we said: This is it, it’s a one game season,” he said. “As crazy as that sounds, it was.”

Melrose got 22 points from 6’9” center Andrew Scocca and 15 from freshman Jalen Adams in a game that saw the Red Raiders play tremendous team basketball for four solid quarters.

“That’s the best game we’ve played all year,” Kasprzak said. “I was very pleased, our intensity was great, our poise and composure were phenomenal tonight. We’re really growing up as a team.”

Melrose (7-7 overall, 6-7 league) held the Sachems (9-8, 9-6) to their lowest offensive output of the year, and displayed a defensive intensity that has been absent from Marcoux Gym for much of the current campaign.

“We held a good scoring team to under 40 points,” Scocca said. “That doesn’t really happen all that much. I think it was just that everyone bought into the team defense.”

Winchester’s offense was led by 12 points from 6’10” junior center Pete Miller, and was never really able to get started, because of poor shooting.

“We got the shots, we got the looks against their defense,” Sachems head coach Quinton Dale said. “We couldn’t convert them tonight, and (Melrose) fed off of it. We lost confidence, they gained confidence. I think that was the difference in the ball game.”

The first half was a back and forth affair, with Melrose eventually taking a 27-20 lead into the locker room thanks to 12 points from Scocca in the first two frames, underscoring his call to teammates to step up the play out on the court.

“I basically put it on this team to show up and play,” the Melrose center said. “They responded the best I’ve ever seen in four years.”

The third quarter saw the Sachems actually outscore the Red Raiders 14-11 and claw their way back into the contest thanks in part to a pair of threes in the frame from senior guard and captain Caleb Unni (8 points). At the beginning of the fourth, it was 38-34 Melrose, and very much anybody’s game to win.

The decisive moment came with under five minutes remaining and the Sachems trailing 40-36, with the ball. Adams jumped in front of what appeared to be a routine pass across the half court line and dashed the towards the hoop, laying it in to stretch the lead to six for Melrose. 

“That was a big play, that was huge for us,” Kasprzak said of Adams’ steal and subsequent basket. “We had a timeout just before that, and we said, ‘this is it: this is their run, right here. If you can win these last two minutes, you win the game going away,’ and they bought into every word.”

The Red Raiders would go on to outscore Winchester 10-1 after Adams’ play, taking much of the drama that the penultimate stanza had seemed to promise out of this one.

While the Sachems will look to seal their spot in the tournament on Friday when they host Watertown at 7 p.m., while the Red Raiders know exactly what they have to do, and after last night’s performance, look all the more capable of getting it done.

“We’ve got six games left and we need three more wins,” Scocca said. “This team knows what it wants, and I think we’re ready to go get it.”