Rockets Tip Jazz in 3 OT Playoff Thriller

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

Senior Division

 Triple Overtime Thriller, the Rockets edge the Jazz 55-52
It took the Rockets 3 overtimes to win the game over the Jazz who were on fire.
The Jazz came out shooting well giving the Rockets defense all they could handle with Chris Catizone (4 points) and Andrew Rogers (8 points) making big stops to cut the lead to 7 at the half. To start second half, point guard Anthony Darrigo (5 points) kicked things off with a three from deep outside. Then the Rockets started to put up some  points with John Waddell (4 points), Thomas Willegal (2 points), and Jack Lindsey making good on offensive rebounds. But the star of the game for the Rockets was by far Tim Lynch (21 points). Tim scored 11 points in the 3 overtime periods to help the Rockets win the game.

The Jazz 2010-2011 season came to an end on Saturday, but certainly not for the lack of a total team effort. The Jazz grabbed the lead early in this one and maintained that lead until deep into the 4th quarter when they ran into foul trouble and the Rockets fierce comeback attempt managed to tie the score at 41 at the end of regulation. The 2 teams went into overtime with no idea it would take a total of 3 OT periods to decide this contest. When all was said and done the Jazz had 4 players foul out of the game, another forced to the bench with an ankle injury, and yet another with an illness that put 6 kids on the bench and left only 5 on the floor to battle to the finish for their playoff lives - and battle they did to hold even against a significant size differential. Cole Iovine and Nick Noel played total shutdown defense against the Rockets offensive weapons and were the key catalysts in allowing the Jazz to maintain the advantage throughout regulation play. Kyle Fleury(14 points) and Danny D'Entremont(12 points) provided the offense that sparked the Jazz early lead that they would hold until the end. As the big men retired with injury & foul trouble late in the 4th and well into OT, it was Petros Nacopoulos(14 points), Nicholas Valente, and David Dempsey(4 points) who held the fort and played the David vs. Goliath roles. Petros drained a huge 3 pointer at the end of OT #1 to force a second overtime. Iovine nailed 3 clutch  points to enable the Jazz to extend the game to a 3rd OT. Mack Boucher logged a ton of minutes and held the fort for the Jazz under the rim. Down the stretch of this seasons schedule this Jazz team played even ball with all of the strongest teams in the SR Division. It is a tremendous credit to the 11 young men on this team who learned that hard work and playing together with a positive attitude as a team can take you anywhere you want to go. They can appreciate that you can lose a game or 2 or 3 but still go home feeling like a winner, which is what they all are - WINNERS. Congratulations to a very talented Rockets team and best of luck in the final four.

TimberWolves 46, Bucks 37
The TWolves would like to thank the Bucks players and coaching staff for a very exciting and clean game. This game was 4th seed vs 5th seed and it lived up to the excitement everyone thought it would be with highs and lows on both sides.The TWolves started the 1st quarter barrage with 21  points. Blake Hery hit for 10, David Morris 5  points, Anthony Payne 4  points, and Jimmy Quilty had his best defensive game of the year. Jimmy set pick after pick freeing up many different players for easy baskets and took charges as well while battling for rebounds. Tim Donovan, Aaron Wenetta, Joe Lalonde, and Chris Coste also played with high intensity for the entire game. Tommy Madore, Austin Harrington, and Mike Baker had pressure on the Bucks all day and played really well.

Pacers tame the Bobcats
The Bobcats season came to end when they came up against an exceptional Pacers team in the second round of the playoffs. They fought hard all game and didn’t give up, but in the end they were outmatched by this top team in TBBL. Leading the scoring for the team, as he’s done so many times this season, Robert Papandrea had 11  points which included a three point shot. He’ll be a key returning player on the team next season. Assisting Papandrea on all of his  points were his line mates of Nick McLaughlin, Mike Ladderbush, and Steven Lee. Paul Salibe had two long range 3 pointers and a foul shot to tally up 7  points. Matt Famiglietti and Andrew Carta both followed with 3  points, and Dan Turosz, Matt Cocca, and Patrick Leonard each finished with 2  points rounding out the total for the team. Ryan Murphy who has been sidelined for half the season with a wrist injury was a leader on the bench encouraging the team to keep fighting and to play hard to the end. Great season guys! Best of luck to each and every one of you.

Intermediate Division

Jazz 38 Celtics 36

 In an unbelievably close game where the Celtics got ahead by as much as 7  points for a few brief moments, the Jazz stayed tough and came up with a win in the remaining 3 seconds of the game with a sweet basket by Jared Roane(18) who was strong both offensively and defensively. It was a great team effort and all players gave it their all. We are especially proud that we have been able to get almost all of our players to score a basket with Johnny Melanson(3) scoring today and a great effort by Robbie Daniels who just missed scoring due to his foot going over the line. Also scoring for the Jazz were Jackson Roane (5), Evan Surette (5), Brandon Alves (3), Matt Mitchell (2), and Ryan Fay (2). Providing some great pressure under the net was Richie Aronson and Jack Vasas who both played strong defensively and displayed nice passing skills.

The Celtics defense was the focus of the first quarter as both teams went up and down the court. Alex Regan broke the ice for Celtics with his first score of the game. Garrett Goempel kicked off the second quarter with a nice two pointer. There was excellent give and go passing between Alex, Christian Bennett and Will Small. After being fouled Christian picked up a point with a free throw. Alex made three baskets in the quarter and Anthony nailed a great 3 pointer. Will Small and Derek Cronis played great defense, setting several picks. A great steal by Josh Snyder and a pass to Garrett added two more to the board. Quinn Conrad and Anthony made some quick passes that added two more to the board. Alex made a quick ball recovery and sent the ball up court to Christan Bennett for another two  points. The Celtics started the second half with a one-point lead and Alex added to that with 2 more baskets. Anthony grabbed his second 3 pointer of the game with a nice pass from Dominic Catizone. On his next visit to the paint, Anthony was fouled and picked up another point. Dominic added a basket to close out the third. Christian opened the final quarter with 2  points. Jonathan Zurawski's hustle paid off and he scored. Alex got a pass from David Scarpa and added another 2  points. With 4:05 remaining the Celtics had a slim 1 point lead, while both teams were fighting hard to gain the victory. As the time slipped away Dominic picked up two more baskets, but the Jazz were able to take the lead in the last three seconds of the game and take the win away from the Celtics.

Bullets over the Eagles

The Bullets came out to start their playoff action with the same tenacity that took them through their undefeated regular season against a very tough Eagles team. For the fifth time this year, all eleven Bullets players put  points on the scoreboard led by Eddie Brenz with an impressive 10  points followed by Ethan Trudeau (6  points), Jeff Peirce (5  points) and five other Bullets players with 4  points. Bullet players like Ryan Sughrue and Shea Hiltz had a solid passing game to assist in the point tally. TJ Contalonis and Ameen Kalkhoran were huge under the boards picking up several key rebounds to upset the opponent offense. Nick Muise and Corey Indelicato frustrated the rival Eagles, producing several mid-court steals. Kelvin Nguyen and Brendan Murray had their usual physical game on both ends of the floor, giving up their bodies to aggravate an excellent Eagle team.

Junior Division

Celtics 16 - Eagles 12

The Celtics and Eagles played a tight game with the Celtics pulling it out at the end with a clutch free throw by Cameron Legovld (7 points) to put the Celtics up by 4 with a minute to play. Great play at both ends of the floor by Jeremy Sencabaugh (2  points), Kartik Prakash (2 points), Josh Winter and Zach DeSanto led to numerous scoring chances. Kevin Carta (2  points), Anthony Lucibello (3 points), and Cole Wescott led the other line with Matt Cahill and Jake Winter providing plenty of defensive support.

Wizards – 19, Warriors – 18  

 The Wizards played a strong offensive game against the Warriors. With a lot of ball movement and teamwork, the Wizards were able to keep the lead until the very end. Working hard at point guard was Adam Pacheco ( 6  points) who is very quick and aggressive when coming down the court. Benjamin Connors ( 2 prs) played hard in his center position and Danny Adelsberger ( 4  points) was strong in his shooting guard position. There was incredible defensive effort by Nicholas Brooks and Ryan Bennett. The energy of both teams was seen and felt by everyone who watched this great playoff match.

Mavericks 25, Sixers 24

In a back and forth game that went down to the wire again, the Mavericks used teamwork for all 32 minutes and came away with the win to make it to the semi-finals of the Juniors TBBL playoffs. With six Mavericks players scoring, the offense was led by: Michael Lambert (6  points, 3 rebounds), Kyle Obst (6  points, 2 steals, 8 rebounds) , Riley Frost (5  points, 4 assists, 5 steals), Joe Rosberg (4  points, 12 rebounds) , Jimmy Strickler (2  points, 5 rebounds), and Kyle Rogers (2  points, 3 steals, 3 rebounds). With awesome defensive playing, keeping the Sixers on edge, the Mavericks were led by: Brandon Coolidge (5 rebounds), Derek Lefler (3 rebounds), Anthony Miano (2 steals, 2 assists) and Matt Salvato (3 assists, 2 rebounds).