TBBL In-town Regular Season Comes to a Close

The TBBL regular season comes to a close with outstanding basketball games across all of the divisions.

Cadet Division

Thunder defeated the Rockets  

The Thunder closed out their season with a victory over the Rockets.  Matthew Duggan was welcomed back after missing the last 4 games due to injury and he quickly shook off the rust scoring the first 2 points of the game on his way to leading the team in scoring.  The defense was solid throughout getting quality play from Paul Allen, Jason Forbes, and Derek Wogan.  Cameron Heichman helped the offense flow with several great passes to open teammates.  The balanced scoring attack had 5 of the 9 players getting into the scoring column for the Thunder getting points from Nicholas Alvarado, Bobby Branchaud, Connor Griffin, Brady McHugh, and Duggan.

The Rockets finished the season with a strong effort but had difficulties scoring the basketball against the Thunder defense. The Rockets were led in scoring by Shane Exilhomme and Adam Ellegood. Playing strong all around games were Daniel Sullivan and Liam Kelley both dribbling and shooting. Brandon Waddell and Tim Panilaitis did an excellent job of rebounding on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. Jimmy Holmes and Seamus Naughton played strong defense out front while Colin Buchanan did a really nice job of dribbling the ball up the court and passing to open men. The Rockets missed their sparkplug Jayden Trudeau on this day. It was a good season for all the Rockets this year.

Suns 20 – Raptors 16

The Suns and Raptors have a long history together with the coaches being good friends as well as many players on both sides as well. Both teams worked together and held many competitive practices together throughout the year.  This game started with each team trading baskets, but the Raptors soon took a strong halftime lead. . The Suns rallied to overcome a big deficit to bring the game within 1 point at which point the Suns surpassed the Raptors and sealed the Victory for a fairy tale ending to the season!

What a way to end the season two young teams battling to the end! The Raptors came out running with some quick baskets and excellent passing by Jason Svendsen (4 points) and Anthony Naghibi (5 points).  Justin Magee (6 points) had some outstanding outside baskets, one at the buzzer to end the 1st half.  Defensive play was a key to keeping this game close throughout as the Raptors had aggressive playing by Luke Montejo, Peter Impink, Eric Bellavia, Connor Broderick all with multiple rebounds and steals.  Zach Hayes made some great saves in keeping the ball in play which helped lead to a basket, and he was also quick in intercepting passes which led to some fast breaks.  The Raptors just fell short of victory on the scoreboard but they played hard all season and the coaches could not be prouder of this team and seeing the improvements made each week.

Hawks 10 – Pistons 8      

The final game of the season was an epic battle of two teams who were closely matched. John Baker scored a nice basket from the right side. Albie Bosworth had several blocks, scored a basket and was a rebounding machine. Michael Carlson contributed several blocks two steals and a nice drive to the basket. Michael Hill showed great ball-handling skills, played his usual shutdown defense and had two nice blocks at the end of the game. A.J. Russo played well at the point guard position and helped the winning effort by clogging up the middle on defense. Ryan Feudo made several key passes that turned into baskets. Kyle Cummings was outstanding at pushing the ball up and finding the open player. Jack Baron had his best overall game today with two blocks and a quick shot, three assists and great in bounding passes. Nicholas Ingersoll was everywhere on the floor, stealing the ball, bringing the ball up, and finding the open person. Aidan McDonald showed his outstanding dribbling skills by weaving in and out of the defenders, and taking several key shots. William Eskenas was the high scorer for the Hawks finishing with six points five steals and two blocked shots.

The final game of the season was a competitive battle for the Pistons. Defense was the name of the game for both teams with the Hawks coming out on top 10-8.  Jared Kruger, Aaron Ramsey, and Morgan Dunham kept the score low with some spectacular defensive play under the net.  Simon Dunham, Matthew Tramonte and Tim Bradley came up with some great steals and Matthew Ramsey made some spectacular passes underneath to Cooper Lemieux (5 pts.) who made some great shots.  Shea Moynihan made up the rest of the scoring for the Pistons (3 Pts.) from both the foul line and the floor.

Celtics 11 – Pacers 2

This was a close game late into the fourth quarter until the C’s were able to pull away.  Romyn Lorick led the scoring with five points and an assist.  Alex Arbogast added four points and an assist.  Noah Williams finished the scoring with two points.  Cade Barron and Adam Saad put in strong rebounding efforts with eight and six rebounds respectively.  Collin Strong and Mathew Flynn did a nice job running the offense and each earned assists.  Dominic Johnson, Daniel Franklin and Carter Forbes all played excellent defense and pulled down important rebounds. 

T-wolves 22 – Sixers 12   

The T-Wolves (final record of 9-2) won their sixth straight game against the talented Sixers.  The T-Wolves led from start to finish with a balanced scoring attack, led by Ian Maresca (10 pts), Colby Flahive (4pts), Colin Hansbury (4 pts) Kodie Legrand (2pts), Edward Galante (2pts), and Chandler Dubay (2 pts). Solid ball handling was exhibited throughout the game by the guards Jason Morris and Evan Galanis.  Once again the defense played a critical role in the victory, marked by a great shot block by Noah Healey and subsequent rebound by David Forgione. The T-Wolves played an overall great game to end a very successful season!

Last game of the season the Sixers came out showing what they had learned all year.  Making up the 12 points for the Sixers was Kyle Adams for 2, Ryan Fleming for 6 and Pouriya Mehrabani for 4. David Timmons was all over the court today playing hard on both sides.  Braydon Aylward and Sam White both played hard down low on offense and defense.  Nathan Jolly, Owen Kinnon and John O’Donnell played great defense on the elbow, making it hard for the Celtics to get by.  Joey Fiorino and Nick Foster helped to clear the lane for their teammates to score.

Bucks 18 – Knicks 10

The Cadet Bucks played a very aggressive Knicks team on the final weekend of the season. The Bucks utilized good ball movement on offense and a solid stifling defense to gain the win, 18-10. The Bucks were led in scoring by Brian Carleton (6 points), Brenden Owens (4), Scott Miller (4), Noah Lehouillier (2) and Dylan Paulding (2). Miller’s baskets included an impressive jump shot from just inside the three point line. The Bucks demonstrated consistency on the defensive side of the ball throughout the entire game with steals blocks and rebounding. Facing one of the biggest teams they had faced all season on the low post, the Bucks used effective boxing out technique to limit the Knicks to one shot on most trips down the court. Standout performances were provided by Ryan Murphy, Tristen Leslie, William Humphries, Lehouillier, Miller and Owens who each had multiple rebounds. Carleton and Paulding each had blocked shots through their help defense from the guard positions.

Solid contributions were also provided by Ian Shpritzer and Aidan Cram from the guard positions through active hands and feet on the defensive side as well as effectively setting screens at the top of the key on offense from the guard position. The Bucks completed an outstanding season wrapping it up with zero losses for the year! Congratulations to all the players for their hard work, dedication and determination throughout the season and to all the coaches for their commitment to the players on the team.

The Knicks season ended with a tough loss to the Bucks on Saturday. In a game that turned out to be a defensive battle, the Knicks were led by Blake Ryder's impressive 9 points. The Knicks defense was once again paced by Quinn Brown and Joey Bourgea, who both made it tough on the Buck's to advance the ball. Scott Lightburn clogged up the middle and grabbed several rebounds and Santino D’Ippolito forced some bad passes. Jayden Donaher had a great steal and sank a tough jumper to pull the Knicks closer late in the game and Ryan Flynn made a free throw to tighten things ups. However, despite several late steals from Tyler Trodden and some key tie-ups from Matt Stadtman and Seamus MacDonald, the Knicks could never quite catch-up.

Junior Division

Spurs 18 – Cavs 16          

This past Saturday the Spurs would enter the Tewksbury Memorial High School Gymnasium not having won a single game, but that fact did not carry much weight with any of the Spurs players taking the court that day. It was determined at a pre-game meeting that today was the day. Today would be their Swan Song as the regular season came to an end. Today would be the day that the basketball Gods would all smile down upon Spurs and grant them their oh so deserved victory.  From the beginning to the end of what would be one of the longest games of the year we saw nonstop action on the court both offensively and defensively.

First points would be scored by Matthew Woods (2 points) which would set the tone for the game and motivate the whole team to dig a little deeper this game and pull out all the stops.  Daedon Bere (2 points) would strike next from down low on a well-timed pass from Samuel Hines and light a fire in bellies of his teammates. The second period would produce the highest points in the game with 8 being scored.  Fantastic plays were made Brady Litton (2 point) feeding Trevor Trodden (2 points) who would take it in for a layup and then Trevor would return the favor and feed Brady who would put in a nice jump shot. The team’s leading scorer Dylan Dufresne (8 points) would be setup nicely by Charles Matsas with 2 perfectly timed passes enabling Dylan to score. The third period would see additional points added by Dylan. The fourth period would see the Cavs closing the gap and bring out the best defensive plays of the year by with plays made by Kyle Breen and Trevor Trodden both breaking up offensive pushes by the Cavs. The nail in the coffin was set by Ryan Rosenberg (2 points) with his basket late in the 4th. 

Wizards 21 – Celtics 13

The Wizards and Celtics played a close game with the Wizards scoring 7 points in the last few minutes to pull ahead on the scoreboard.  Ethan Exilhomme led the Wizards with 12 points and Logan Teixiera, David Miller and Connor McFadyn also scored in the game. Will Forbes had a number of great shots but the ball just wouldn’t drop. The story of the game was defense with Felix Navarette, Jason Donaher and Colin Goggins getting rebounds and creating turnovers. During the final minutes Colin Fullerton, Jonny and Nathan Norwood and Ethan Exilhomme attacked the Celtics offense with their full court press creating a number of turnovers that led to Wizards points and secured the victory over a tough Celtics team.

Leading the Celtics in scoring were Liam Macdonald and Brady Johnson with 4 points each.   Derek Munroe scored 3 points and Aiden Grogan added 2 points.  A good defensive effort was given by Cameron Lameroux, Seamus Cunningham, and Jake Pellitier while a good offensive effort was put forth by Cameron Loder, Logan Auth and Justin Lucarotti.

Lakers 26 – Sixers 15

The Lakers struck first with Sean Fahey (8 pts.) and Mihir Bagul (6 pts.) putting them out front early.  The Lakers continued to score and play great defense with Lee Ghannam and Abhi Lingareddy showing good man-to-man coverage with great rebounding and steals.  The Lakers continued with good teamwork and communication on the court, passing the ball effectively to one another.   Robert Cortes (2 pts), Mike Wilson (2 pts.), Nick Polimeno (2 pts.), James Ministeri (2 pts.), and Nick Wilson (2 pts.) all got on the scoreboard today.  Jack Stadtman, Principals List recipient, made his first 2 points of the season which would seal the victory for the Lakers.

Warriors 21 – Mavs 7

The Mavs ran into a buzz saw Saturday and lost 21 - 7 to a hot shooting Warriors team.  Scoring for the Mavs were Derek Wilkinson and Mark Olu both with 3pts and Paul Tower hitting a free throw. Nick Johnston and Josh Engelken both had great shot attempts that wouldn't fall. Showing great hustle on both sides of the ball were Henry Pestana, Devon Stoddard, Jordan Mackenzie, Cullain Johnson, and Alex Johnston.

Intermediate Division

Jazz 42 – Suns 41

The Jazz hung on Saturday in a nail biter against the tough Suns team. Scoring for the Jazz was Ryan Meuse with 12 pts, Nate wilkinson 9pts, Josh Donaher and Matt Ferreira with 6pts, Derek Wallace with 5pts, and Shawn Manson and Nick Stephens each with 2pts.  Matt Pelletier continued playing great defense along with Jack Kennelly and Mike Bankowski who showed tremendous hustle and heart to help seal the victory.

The Suns played and outstanding game of all-around basketball, including great shots on goal, blocked shots, and rebounds. The team's defense held back the Jazz with the efforts of William Mance, Jack O'Neill, Ryan Bennett, Harrison Graczyk, and William Andella.  The Suns scoring was contributed by Phadungdet Kaeokit with 14, Sean Whelton with 11, Christopher Zdniak with 7, Matthew Dugan with 6, and Anthony Miano with 3 points.

Wizards 29 – Bobcats 25

The Wizards came out strong in the first half scoring 16 points and holding the Bobcats to 12. Scoring contributions of the first half were by Rich Cappiello, Matt Perron, Dominic Cohen and Alec Sokol. Sean McMahon and John Murphy fought hard for all rebounds and played great defense causing turnover. In the second half the teams played equally strong but with the scoring efforts from Nick Cappiello  and Xavier McShane the Wizards were able to hold on to their lead.

Thunder defeat Celtics

The Thunder ended their regular season with a victory over the Celtics. Scoring was spread throughout the Thunder roster, with seven of the eight players scoring. More importantly, the team moved the ball the best it has all season, leading to easier scoring opportunities. The Thunder also debuted a new defense, where the players hustled, trapped ball-handlers and created turnovers. With the playoffs coming up, the Thunder hopes to ride the winning momentum!

Hornets defeat Heat

Senior Division

T-Wolves 54 – Hornets 53

Both teams fought hard to win.  Bradley Richardson was there to catch the rebounds and assists.  Mikey  Lambert, 6 pts.  and Mikey Sarno had good ball handling skills, swift passes and rebounds.  Andrew Pacheco, 4 pts., and Adam Deveau, 13 pts., sprinted up and down the court, passing and stealing very skillfully.  Bradley  Denis and Chris Chiccarelli 2 pts. , showed good teamwork with steals, rebounds and good blocks.  Tim Patterson scored 2 baskets, good rebounding and played good defense. Trevor Breen showed agile teamwork and ball handling, great passing and defense.  Josh Tirrell was again the top scorer with 24 pts. running, jumping and passing with ease. All the players worked for every basket and the score was close for the whole game. 

The Hornets fell short in their final regular season game to the Timberwolves in one of the most competitive and exciting games of the year.  Neck and throughout, the Hornets couldn’t pull of the victory losing by one point. As he’s done countless times this season, Guard Matty McLaughlin put the pedal down and dropped in 15 points, which includes 5 clutch foul shots to keep the game close. Center Ben Connors followed with 10 solid points powering the boards, his trademark this year. Center Robert Page’s aggressiveness led to 9 more points, and he fought through an injury late in the game to stay in, to try to help his team to pull off the win. Crisp outside shooting by Nolan Higgins and Leo Frisella netted 6 points each. Three of Higgin’s 6 points was a long range 3 pointer, the second week in a row he’s buried that shot. Sam Fortier’s and Brendan Murray’s defense helped to set up two swishes by Nick Borges (4 points), as well as a key 3 pointer by Daniel DeRosa to open the second half. The Hornets finish the regular season at 9 – 3, and secured the second seed position of the Senior Division heading into the Playoffs.

Bobcats 42 – Blazers 40

It was a back and forth battle between the Bobcats and Blazers on Saturday night. The Bobcats came out struggling against the tough Blazers press in the first half as they struggled to get their offense set up. Some great ball pressure by Danny Nguyen and a nice assist by Jarryd Hickey helped to keep the Bobcats close. As the second quarter rolled around Damian Dugan got the Bobcats right back in the game by dropping in a quick 10 points in four minutes, and led all scorers with 24. for the game. John Kenney drilled a three pointer to get the Bobcats rolling in the third quarter, followed up with another three pointer and suffocating defense from Mike Flynn. Josh Snyder played his best defensive game of the year grabbing rebounds and diving for loose balls. Towards the end of the game Ryan Nickerson buried a deep three to tie the game, and Dave Pesantes showcased his ball handling skills carving through the full court pressure. Danny Carter sealed the win for the Bobcats grabbing back to back offensive rebounds with less than 30 seconds left to push the Bobcats over the Blazers.

Magic 43 – Bucks 39

The Magic beat the Bucks in a closely played game.  It has been a great season for both teams!

Rockets 51 – Sixers 28

Nick Catizone led the Sixers with 8 points, followed by Bryan Lelos with 5 and Nick Zullo with 4.  Elijah McTiernan, Jonathan Raschella, and Jonathan Zurawski all scored 3, and Raymond Humphrey scored 2.  Pat Carleton played his usual solid game as point guard, and Nick Chinappi made some nice rebounds.

Travel Program

Rockport leaves broken hearted as TBBL 7 Blue wins 65 -60 in overtime.

Tewksbury 6 Red had its eyes set on this weekend as two tough games were on the docket - and tough they were. But 6 Red showed its true character and pulled out two big wins, both in heart-stopping fashion. The fun started on Saturday night as 6 Red hosted Lowell White. This game proved to be a carbon copy of the game earlier this season as 6 Red jumped out early only to have Lowell take a lead into the break. Tewksbury stormed back in both games and took a lead halfway through the second period but Lowell took a seemingly comfortable lead into the waning minutes. Both times, Chris Antonelli (16 pts) took charge late with some clutch scoring to pull the game out of the fire. This time, he hit a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining to tie it up and then, with ice water in his veins, stepped to the line to make 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch for the 49-46 victory. Tyler Keough showed he had no fear taking the ball to the hoop despite the size difference and added 8 points. The remaining offense came from Paul Manzi (6 pts), Colby Brown (6 pts), Shane Aylward (5 pts), Garrett Kingston (4 pts) and Richie Markwarth (4 pts).

There was little time to celebrate as 6 Red hosted a much improved Stoneham Blue team on Sunday afternoon. This game was another back and forth affair with small leads being exchanged between the two squads. Fittingly, the game ended tied at 48 at the end of regulation thanks to some clutch free-throw shooting by Keough (8 pts) and Kingston (3 pts). Stoneham scored the first basket of the OT but Greg Sencabaugh (7 pts) and Brown (6 pts) scored pivotal hoops and Nolan Timmons (4 pts) added two huge free throws enabling 6 Red to escape with a 56-52 win. Antonelli (8 pts), Aylward (7 pts), Manzi (6 pts), Thomas Bradley (5 pts), and Markwarth (2 pts) rounded out the scoring while Nick Iannacci contributed some hard-nosed defense.

Tewksbury 6 Red now stands at 12-3 in division play and is looking to lock up the number 2 seed with just one more win.