5th Grade Warriors Split Four Games; 7th Grade Swamps VBC

(Editor's note: The following information was provided by the administrators and coaches of the Wamesit Warriors Basketball program.)

5^th Grade: Warriors 30 – Pentucket 16

With a small squad on Sunday due to sickness and vacation the Warriors were able to pull away from this tough squad. Leading the way offensively was Kyle Harkins with 12 points. Ben McKay chipped in with 8, Nathan Ell had five, Patrick Carleton four and Tyler Wilson rounded out the scoring with 1 point. Cam O'Hearn led the way defensively with some key stops down the stretch. He was helped by Tyler, Patrick and Nathan Ell playing great help defense throughout the game. The Warriors now stand at 7-8 on the season with two games to go before the playoffs.

 5^th Grade: Warriors 37 – Melrose 32

Last Sunday the Warriors traveled to Melrose to take on the 3rd place team. The results were good as the Warriors came away with a hard fought 37-32 victory. Offensively Ben McKay (15) and Tyler Wilson (9) led the way as these two great friends displayed some great passing for easy buckets. Kyle Harkins had six points, Patrick Carleton and Nathan Ell each had a bucket, and Cam O'Hearn scored a huge three point play to give his team a little cushion. Defensively Scott Mazzapica, James Butler and Nathan Cantanuso led the way. This win allowed the team to even their record at 6-6 as they continue to improve each week.

 5^th Grade: Warriors 32 – Saugus 36

The Warriors traveled to Saugus on Saturday and came away a couple baskets short of a victory. Kyle Harkins led the team offensively with 10 points, while the Hiltz boys poured in a combined 15 more, 9 for Braden and 6 for Blake. Nathan Cantanuso and Ben McKay each had a bucket and James Butler added a free throw. Defensively there were great efforts by Ben McKay, Tyler Wilson, Cam O'Hearn, Patrick Carleton, Nathan Ell, Braden & Blake Hiltz. Unfortunately the late comeback fell short as the Warriors ran out of gas.

 5^th Grade: Warriors 34 – Saugus 48

The Warriors hosted Saugus on Sunday and were unable to play two halves of basketball. With a halftime score of 18-15 the Warriors were looking for a second half charge to close the gap. Halfway through the third the team was down 7, 33-26. From there things fell apart as the Saugus squad hit a couple threes, made some great fast break passes and were led by two 15 point efforts from Cirame and O'Brien. The Warriors had a balanced scoring attack as the Kyle Harkins and Braden Hiltz led the team with 7 each. Six from Blake Hiltz, four from Tyler Wilson & Cam O'Hearn, and a bucket from Ben McKay, Patrick Carleton and James Butler. This was a coming out party for Patrick Carleton as his defense and rebounding kept the Warriors alive. The Warriors will head into the February break with a 6-8 record and looking to get back to 500.

 7^th Grade: Warriors 67– VBC 44

The Warriors had their first non-league game this season and tested the waters outside of their division. The first half was a strong one and was led by an all-around team effort leading 38 to 13. Ryan Briggs, Ryan Bain and Justin Derrah tore it up in the first half scoring 27 of the teams 38 first half points. Jack Theriault, Josh Asselin and Nick Dunlap had the other team utterly confused and they combined for 8 steals. Andrew White and Kevin Vonkahle had 11 rebounds and the Warriors combined for 40 total rebounds keeping the other team from second chance scoring. White played very tough underneath the whole game gaining position receiving some very nice assists from Theriault and Dunlap. Brady Rodgers played his usual tough defense and had 2 big steals.

But the player of the game honors goes to Kevin Vonkahle who played his best game of the season on both ends of the court. Vonkahle led all scorers with 16 points followed by Briggs (13), Derrah (12), Bain (11), White (9), Dunlap (4), Asselin and Theriault each with 1.

VBC started draining some shots at the end of the game in hopes of catching up but Asselin, Rodgers and Vonkahle put a stop to it by making steals and matching baskets down the stretch. The Warriors face a tough Peabody team next week at 11:45AM Sunday at the Wynn Middle School.