Barinelli Lifts Rockets; Derrah Carries Knicks

(Editor's note: The following information was provided by the coaches and administrators of the Tewksbury Boys Basketball League.)

Senior Division

Rockets 57, Bucks 42

The Bucks fell to the tough and well balanced Rockets. The Bucks just couldn’t get anything going in the first quarter and dug themselves a deep hole trailing by 12 points. The Bucks would mount several come back attempoints led by team high scorer Anthony Barinelli who finished with 10 points and Joe Gershman who added 9. However, the Bucks could not make enough defensive stops against a very strong Rockets team to cut into the deficit. Also scoring for the Bucks were Peter Murray (3points) and Andrew Bryan (2points). Both Bucks centers probably faced their toughest challenge of the season matching up against the Rockets big men, and each man played very well. Nick Dulock managed to put in 4 points despite the fact that the Rockets defense was pressuring him the whole game. Ryan Letourneau added 1 point, Joey Felix contributed 6 and Dylan Bartolomeu added to his three point count by draining 2 from long range. Working extremely hard at both ends of the court and giving 110% were Chris Meehan and Mike Boudreau.

Knicks 49, Bobcats 33

The Knicks played solid defense to hold off the Bobcats Sean Derrah led the Knicks with 14 points, followed by Jeff Donahue with 9 points, Will LeRette with 7 points, and Joe Ogden with 6 points. The Knicks had a balanced scoring attack with all but one player scoring. It was the defense that gave the Knicks the win. Chris Allen had several big blocks and Chris Fothergill and Jimmy Hutchinson had great games under the basket with rebounds and solid defense. When the Bobcats tried to pressure the ball, the Knicks ball handlers, Nick Constantineau Mike McAteer, and Will Ramsey were able to control the ball and put tremendous pressure on the Bobcats. Once again, it was another great team effort from every member of the Knicks to beat a tough Bobcats team.

The Bobcats began the game down to two key players against a solid Knicks team. Ryan Murphy tried courageously to return from a mid season injury but had to leave the game to avoid any further complications. Now three teammates short, the Cat’s were tired and worn out but fought hard to remain competitive. Leading the group with an impressive 11 points, Andrew Carta powered on as his minutes played mounted. Close behind, Robert Papandrea found some reserve energy to put in 9 points, and Matt Famiglietti kept running end-to-end exhausted and tossed in 7 points. As the minutes accumulated, some loose balls ensued and fouls increased. But the team hung in there as Nick McLaughlin, Matt Cocca, and Patrick Leonard all contributed 2 points each to keep their team in the game. Steven Lee provided strong defensive and offensive rebounding underneath, and Dan Turosz who played an amazing 12 straight minutes controlled the ball up and down the court setting up most of the Bobcats’ points.

TimberWolves defeat the Magic
The TWolves only had six players with the seventh coming in just before the game started and got one more player to make the big eight. Timmy Donovan had a monster game with a ton of rebounds, assists, and banged in 9 points. The players who got the benefit of his rebounds were Blake Hery a huge 25 points and Austin Harrington with 9 points including a trey. David Morris played two roles today on the court; he was a play maker on the court and he helped his teammates with direction of play from the bench, nice job. We also had Joe Lalonde, Mike Baker, and Jimmy Quilty with a furious defense which helped to shut down the Magic's interior offense. They gave up no easy baskets and had to earn every point. The Magic had a player shooting lights outs with three's till Chris Coste jumped on him defensively and did a great job. Lastly, the T Wolves got back to playing team ball and it showed. No one quit even when we were down by double digits.

This was a tail of two halfs. The Magic came out of the box on fire against a very good TWolves team. Brendan O'Connor(6points) and Dylan Bolorinho(4points) pressure defense and good decision making helped the Magic score the first nine points of the game. Marty Glynn (4points) and Jon Zervas’ (4points) strong work on both sides of the ball helped Mark Brooks (17points) who hit 3 of his four from behind the arc to propel the Magic to a 21-11 first quarter lead. The Magic couldn't get the ball to drop in the second, watched their lead disappear, and found themselves down 1 at the half 27-26. Camden White dropped one of the few buckets of the second. In the third and fourth quarters the Magic simply ran out of gas while being outscored 33-9.

Lakers top the 76ers
It was a well played game but the Sixers fell to the Lakers at the Ryan School. David Barry led the scoring for the Sixers with seven points, followed by Jonathan Tower with six. Steve Ferreira and Brandon Fitzpatrick each had four points and Adam Rekkbie had three. Ben Rauseo added two points. Brian Conneely, Josh Caredeo, and Colin Brace played very well defensively. First year Sixer Brandon Fitzpatrick improves with each game on both ends of the court, always playing with tenacity.

Pacers and Jazz battle into overtime

The Pacers came from behind late to force overtime and then put together a solid effort in the extra stanza to prevail in a nail biter of a game. Anthony Monteneri led the way with 23 points, many of those coming off penetrating drives to the basket. Dan Sawicki had a very steady game both inside and out winding up with 16. Brandon Evangelista came alive in the 2^nd half finishing with 17. He was huge during the final 4 minutes of regulation both with his scoring and defense. Eric Ell played a solid 2 way game after overcoming some early foul trouble. Ryan Anderson fouled out, but did a superb job defending the backside of the Pacers full court press. Robert Nicholas did an outstanding job off the boards and defensively.

This game went down like one of the classic Ali-Frazier heavyweight prize fights with the fans on the edge of their seats throughout the contest. Each team absorbed the best blows their opponent could deliver - bending but never breaking before countering with an offensive rally of their own. At the end of the overtime period the Pacers found themselves on top, earning the 51-49 victory. All 11 Jazz players came ready to play against a physical and talented Pacer squad. There were several lead changes over the course of this affair with each team unable to gain more than a 7 point advantage at any given time. The Jazz were quick out of the gates in this one with Danny D'Entremont knocking down two of his three 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes of action. D'Entremont finished the day as the Jazz high scorer dropping in 15 clutch points. Nick Noel again put forth a tireless effort down low in the trenches and helped lead the rebounding efforts of the Jazz. Noel hit for 9 of his 12 points in the second half including a 3 point bomb in the heart stopping OT period. The pressure defense of Nicholas Valente, David Dempsey(4points), and Cole Iovine(2points) played a huge part in slowing the Pacers offensive attack. Kyle Fleury(2 points), Greg Silva, Mack Boucher, and Richie Pachucki gave up significant size underneath the rim but nevertheless dug in and worked relentlessly blocking shots and grabbing rebounds and loose balls. Rounding out the scoring for the Jazz were Billy Petherbridge (4points) and Petros Nacopoulos, who drained two 3-pointers on his way to a hustling 10 point effort.

Intermediate Division

Hornets 44, Eagles 16

Hornets played well against a very good, but short handed Eagle’s Team. The Hornets had a even scoring attack with Ryan Barry leading the way with 10points Zach Smith 8points, Dan McCreven 7points, Billy Tamboli 6points, Jack Rose & Zach Karnell 4points each, and rounding out the scoring Paul Farias 3points and Bobby Payne 2points. Jared Cowles and Trevor Breen had their chances but the ball wouldn’t drop. The Eagles played hard for four quarters, but lacked the numbers this week. The Hornets are coming together as a team, and will be looking forward finishing the regular season strong next week.

Tough game for the Eagles against the mighty Hornets. Justin Brown, Kevin Cooke, Dominick Desisto, Chris Johnson, Bryan Lelos, Elijah McTiernan and Cory Mello worked hard as team but could not get it together enough to pull out a win. The Hornets had their game on and nothing was going to stop them.

Nuggets 46, Celtics 35           

Excitement filled the air as the Celtics took on the Nuggets Saturday at the Wynn. There was a lot of back and forth action between the two clubs before the first basket was scored. Anthony McNeil started the scoring off with a nice basket in the first quarter. Garrett Goempel and Alex Regan worked closely with both adding two more points score board. The Celtics were down by seven at the end of the first quarter. Jonathan Zurawski set up some great picks for Anthony to start the second quarter off with two more baskets. Will Small added some great defensive moves to free up Alex for three straight baskets. Dominic Catizon kept the momentum going with strong drives up center court. Christian Bennett displayed a lot of enthusiasm and team spirit as he scored early in the third. Following his lead, Josh Snyder, Derek Cronis and David Scarpa sent it through the hoop. There was lots of action in both directions but the Nuggets held onto a 14 point lead at the end of the third quarter. Anthony finished with two more points before fouling out in the fourth. Alex then turned on the jets, scoring three in a row to narrow the margin. With only 10 seconds left in the game, Alex put the icing on the cake (a great game!) with a three pointer from the top of the key. High scorer for the game was Alex with nineteen points. Despite the Nuggets victory, every member of both teams did their part to make it a great game.

Junior Division

Wizards over the Cavs

The Wizards came out strong against the Cavs with Adam Pacheco (15 points) taking control of the ball early. Working hard in center position was Benjamin Connors ( 6 points) and Aaron Kennen ( 5 points) , who had many nice assists. Danny Adelsberger ( 9 points) moved quickly down the court as team point guard along with Nicholas Brooks who gave a lot of effort defensively.

Hornets over the Mavericks

The Hornets defeated the Mavericks in an intense game. Kyle Harkins led the Hornets in scoring with 22 points. Nicholas Catizone had two blocks and scored 8 points. Shaun Murphy made some great fast break plays and scored 6 points. Ryan Meuse had some spectacular passes and scored 6 points. Alex Kelleher and Christopher Repucci played great defense and scored 2 points each. Michael Repucci and Andrew Maclean both made some nice passes and played with a lot of hustle. The victory was a total team effort.

The Mavericks, playing short-handed all game put up a valiant effort against the Hornets but couldn’t put up the numbers to win. The Mavericks’ scoring was led by Kyle Obst (6 points, 2 steals, 10 rebounds), Michael Lambert (6 points, 5 rebounds), Riley Frost (6 points, 2 assists, 4 steals) and Kyle Rogers (4 points, 4 rebounds. The Mavericks were led defensively by Derek Lefler (6 rebounds), Brandon Coolidge (5 rebounds, 2 steals) and Anthony Miano (2 rebounds, 1 assist).

 Sixers 28, Eagles 24

The Sixers defeated the Eagles bringing the Sixers to a final regular season record of 10 wins and 2 losses. Gavin MacDonald was the leading scorer on the Sixers with 16 points. Jack Callinan (4 points.), Mackin MacDonald (4 points) Christian MacMillan (2 points) and Michael Flynn (2 points) demonstrated excellent passing and teamwork. Key defensive players were Adam Hines, Richard Capiello, Sean Whelton, and John Kenney, who kept the pressure on the Eagles offense and contributed key rebounds.

 Cadet Division

Pacers over the T-Wolves

The Pacers came away with a victory in a tight game against the T-Wolfs. Matthew Naughton lead all scorers with 10 points and had several key steals. Zachary Lalonde added 6 tough points and Robby Kimtis had several rebounds and added 4 points. Sean Kelley had a great game adding 2 points. Pratik Alladi and James Reardon were excellent on defense and passing the ball around. Michael Bottaro and Damien Hadden were brilliant on offence and defending the basket. It was a great end to fantastic season. Thanks to all the players and a special thanks to Coach Joe Lalonde for being a tremendous help throughout the season.

Sonics 20, Bucks 16

The Sonics closed out their season with perhaps their best game of the year. They played excellent team defense for the entire game and moved the ball well on offense. Jack Balboni had another strong rebounding game on both ends of the floor and he once again led the team’s defense playing solid individual and team defense. Kyle Scrooc was also strong on the boards, particularly on the offense end showing good hustle and aggressiveness. Liam MacDonald made solid contributions on the defensive end and was instrumental in moving the ball on the offensive end consistently finding open teammates. The balanced scoring attack was led by John Beatrice with 6, Robert Evangelista added 4, Owen Griffin, Ryan Keane, Kyle McHugh, Arya Mehrabani, and Tyler Strong all had 2 points each. It was a strong finish to a great season for the Sonics!

Clippers - Pistons

The Pistons put in a solid defensive effort against the Clippers, with Kalu Olu and Lucas McFadyen leading the defense in the Center position. Logan Teixeira came up with several blocks and steals in Center and Forward position. Leading the team in rebounding today was Logan Gallagher, Cameron Cimmino and Zachary Graczyk. Joey Branchaud and Ryan Briley made great passes, connecting often to Tommy Branchaud and Zachary Hines. Scoring for the Pistons today were Joey Branchaud, Tommy Branchaud and Kalu Olu. Great season, Pistons!

Sixers 18 Hawks 11

The Hawk’s scorers were Rory Power 5, Sean Murphy 4, and Anthony Disanto 2. Disanto’s score happened when he stole the ball and went coast to coast for the hoop. JP Murphy continued to make good shot attempoints . Dominic Cohen also made some good offensive moves and was consistent defending. Mike Cronin dribbled the ball and continued to make good shot attempoints. The team was lead defensively by Mike Kelleher who made 4 defensive rebounds. Sreetej Digumarthi and Chase Perault continued to show defensive excellence smothering the Sixers’ point and shooting guards.

Rockets 16, Knicks 14
Rockets had a great final game to finish the season. It started off close and ended close....it came down to final few minutes to decide the outcome of the game. The Rockets walked away with a good win and a well played game against the Knicks. The Rockets have improved each game as the season came to an end. Dribbling, ball handling, defense and passing as well as scoring are all starting click. The game was lead by Jason Martineau, Ryan Day and Will Andella all scoring points. Great offense and defense played by Ryan Hunt, Jack Kenneally, Logan Reinhard, Mathew Woods, and Josh.

The Knicks had yet another game decided by 2 points but came up on the short end this time despite their most balanced scoring attack of the season. Jared Gray, Ethan Fleming, Noah Fleming, Will McKay, Ben Svendsen, Justin Charlton, and Justin Murphy all got into the scoring column. Owen Gilligan distributed the ball well from the point and just missed a long jumper from the top of the key that had the fans ready to jump out of their seats. Cole Duffett and Zach Daigle were everywhere on defense forcing turnovers and disrupting the offense of a skilled Rockets team.