Tewksbury Boys Basketball League Week 11 Action

Junior Division

Sixers 15 – Bucks 14

The Sixers had a great end of the regular season game winning 15-14. Drew and Jack Rennell had four points each while Nick Alvarado added five points and Ryan Murphy had two points. There was a lot of great defense and passing from Ryan Benchater, Alex DelloRusso , Santino D’Ippolito and Eddie Galante. This team has showed a lot of heart all season. After a strong finish to the regular season the Sixers are ready to excel in the playoffs.

The Bucks lost in a nail biter to the Sixers in their final regular season game. Despite the loss, it was an amazing team effort displayed! The Knick continued to battle and never gave up, right down to the final seconds. Blake Ryder was an offensive star putting up eleven of the Bucs points. Zach Hays played great defense and put up a couple of points as well. Chandler Dubay, Connor Broderick, Simon and Morgan Dunham were defensive standouts controlling offensive and defensive rebounds. PJ Civitarese, Alex Grove and Ryan Thompson moved the ball up and down the court and had many great passes and tries at the hoop. Ryan Thompson also scored a key point at the foul line as well.

Rockets 33 – Hawks 19

The shorthanded Rockets played very well from start to finish in their match up with the Hawks bringing home a 33-19 victory. Six of the Rockets seven players all hit the scoreboard providing outstanding scoring balance for the game. Drew Nestor let the way on offense scoring fifteen points, while also gathering several offensive rebounds. Daniel Sullivan displayed good ball handling skills and defense while collecting six points. Justin Darrigo continued his strong defensive play throughout the game while contributing five points with a made free throw included in there. David Forgione added his outstanding ball handling and passing while adding four points. Jimmy Holmes has an excellent all around game chipped in two points on a real nice drive to the basket while Danny Franklin added a free throw after being fouled following an offensive rebound. Ryan Mackeen player excellent defense, showed strong ball handling sills and had several good shots at the basket that just wouldn’t fall for him. Overall it was a great team effort and play from the Rockets in their matchup.

Pistons 26 – Heat 20

The Pistons had a great come from behind win in their last game of the regular season. The Pistons started slow, only putting two points on the board the entire first half to trail the Heat. However, the Pistons’ offense came on fire in the second half scoring 24 points to win 26 -20 against the hard playing Heat. The Pistons offense was led by Kyle Cummings, twelve points, along with some great efforts by Mathew Ramsey, six points, Shea Moynihan, six points, and Anthony Naghibi, two points. Defense was crucial for the Pistons and there were some stellar defensive plays made by Aiden Leal and Jason Morris. Alex Naghibi showed some great heads up play with some fantastic outlet passes to help the Pistons get some much needed fast break points. Aaron Ramsey rounded out the Pistons offense at guard by setting up some great scoring plays. A great game overall and a great win for the Pistons.

Cavs 32 – Pacers 22

Congratulations to Andre Monteiro for earning the Game Ball two weeks in a row for scoring eight points in key situations. The always reliable Joey Bourgea sank eight points when it counted. Sean Hirtle and Kyle Adams played very tight defense on every play while Jonah Bennet and Joe Romero, two points, pulled down the rebounds under pressure. Cam Heichman and Zach Sullivan grabbed loose balls and had some good defensive stops. Anthony Burgess scored a game high, fourteen points.

As the Pacers took the court in the final regular season game in the Junior Division, they knew they had to bring their “A” Game for this prime time show down. The Cavs jumped out 1st with the scoring but the Pacers defense was a tough one lead by the speed and nose for the ball by Cameron Kearney and Billy Burris, both who had a hand full of steals and interceptions. Also working hard on defense was Lucas Adams, Nathan Petrone and Daniel Richardson, all had great coverage and remained playing a solid man to man game. On the Offense side of things for the Pacers, Nick Degloria had a season high scoring ten points for his team and this was supported by some awesome passes from Timmy Lepore who took charge providing direction to his team. Also on the boards was Scott Miller with a solid seven points for the Pacers and working hard right behind was William Humphrey with four points. The pace of the game was fast and aggressive and both teams left nothing on the court but sweat.

Thunder 31 – Knicks 24 in OT

What a game to end the regular season! Two very competitive teams battling in the final game of the regular season just before the playoffs begin. The Thunder came out on fire taking a quick 10-2 lead but the Knicks regrouped and cut the lead to 16-12 at the half. The 2nd half was basket for basket as both teams were clicking on all sides of the ball as the 4th quarter came to an end, the game was tied at 24 all. In the overtime, the Thunder tossed in 7 points for the victory and finished its regular season record at 6-5. Team Thunder had many contributors on the scoreboard; Nico Gonzalez with seven points, Ben Doucette, Michael Gaglione and Luke Montejo each finished with six points. Ryan Flynn tossed in four points and Damian Ortiz’s two points were the winning points in overtime. The defense was led by Christian Rainone, Paul Allen and Nathan Jolly who all had multiple rebounds and steals.

The Knicks lost an overtime thriller on Saturday to the Thunder. The Knicks once again started slow and found themselves in an early hole before storming back. The offense got jump started thanks to a basket from Jayden Donaher and a running bank shot from Ben Piccolo. The game remained close throughout and the Knicks continued to fight and play tough defense. Scott Lightburn played great man defense and grabbed some tough rebounds and Seamus MacDonald applied tremendous ball pressure out front to keep the game close. Justin Magee got into the scoring column with a few quick buckets including a long distance jump shot and James Carroll added a basket of his own. Braydon Aylward continued his run of great passes and had the assist that tied the game. John O’Donnell and Ethan Hines also forced some key jump balls late in the game that helped send the game to OT. But, in the overtime session, the Knicks seemed to run out of gas and ultimately lost a hard fought battle.

T-wolves 32 – Celtics 13

The T-Wolves played a very good Celtics team on Saturday. The first half was back and forth of scoring with Vincent Marchelletta and Umari Seney leading the way for the T-Wolves. The T-Wolves were able to pull away in the second half behind their leader Umari Seney. The T-Wolves were lead in scoring by Umari Seney, fourteen, AJ Seney and Colby Flahive, 4 points each, Vincent Marchelletta, six, Evan Galanis and Tyler Trodden who contributed two points each. The T-Wolves had many defensive standouts. Evan Galanis, AJ Seney, Tyler Trodden and Owen Kinnon contributed with several steals and blocked shots. Joey Fiorino and Wyatt Lafabvre matched up well against the Celtics big men. This was a great team win for the T- Wolves.

The Tewksbury Junior Celtics lost to a tough T-Wolves team. The Celtics were led by Romyn Lorick’s five points. Cade Barron, Peter Impink, Max Mattuchio, Pouriya Mehrabani, and Adam Saad each added two points. Matthew Flynn and Nicholas Ingersoll finished with an assist and three rebounds. Jacob Mellen pulled down five rebounds. Shane Nickerson had a good game defensively.

Intermediate Division

Warriors 37 – Cavs 30

It was a back and forth battle between the Cavs and Warriors Saturday with alternating lead changes. Mark Olu led the way for the Cavs with 18 points. Louis Mascia and Jack Stadtman pulled down some key defensive rebounds to spark transition offense for Matt Woods and Dhruv Kaushal. Mike Bottaro threw in a few beautiful jump shots, and Mike Duggan did a good job finishing in the paint. Defensively Julian Costello, Tyler Leeds and Joey Arsenault made some clutch stops in the 4th quarter, but credit the Warriors for making some key plays down the stretch to pull away

Nets 33 – Celtics 23

Shorthanded with Robert Cortes sidelined, the Nets put in another great defensive effort against an outstanding Celtics team. The Nets jumped out to an early lead in the first half, depending on their great defensive play to slowly extend the lead. The Celtics battled back in the 4th quarter, but the Nets never relinquished the lead and were able to close it out with a relentless defensive effort and smart ball movement against the Celtics press. For the second week in a row, all of the Nets’ players got on the scoreboard. Jack Panilaitis led all scorers with 11 points, including going 3-4 from the free throw line in the first half. Brandon Wood followed close behind with 10 points including going 2 for 5 from the charity stripe. Dan Lightfoot added 3 points, while Sam Hines, Logan Auth, Connor McFadyen, and Josh Engelken each contributed a bucket to round out the Nets’ scoring. The defensive pressure, particularly by guards Logan Auth, Dan Lightfoot, Brandon Wood, and Jack Panilaitis really dictated the game flow, causing the Celtics to turn the ball over or take tough shots that were almost always grabbed by Josh Engelken or Connor McFadyen down low.

Lakers 40 – Sixers 20

The game started fast for the Lakers with Lee Ghannam getting 5 quick points, towards his 9 point total. Brian Doherty (2 pts) played great defense keeping the Sixers outside. Nick Wilson and Aiden Crawson also contributed with good rebounding and passing. Sean Fahey (10pts) led all the Lakers in scoring. Mihir Bagul (2pts from the foul line), along with Nick Bobadilla (6pts), and James Ministeri (6pts) provided good teamwork to keep the Lakers out in front. Evan Silva (2pts) also contributed with a few key steals. Will Forbes closed it out, scoring his own bucket.

Spurs 28 – Mavs 22

The Spurs played some great defense and won a close game against the first place Mavs. Kyle Darrigo was the high scorer in this one with 12 points. Logan Reinhard did a great job on the boards and added 6 points. Max Tyler had 3 blocks and several rebounds and added 5 points. Nick Polimeno added a pair of free throws and had 4 points overall. Colin Goggins played great defense and scored 2 points. Daedon Bere, Cullian Johnson, Jason Barnes and Joshua Linnehan all played great defense and kept the Mavs off the boards. It was a good victory for the Spurs.

Senior Division

Thunder 45 – Bulls 22

For the Thunder, the scoring went as follows; Andrew Lefebvre (16), Sean Whelton (13), Chris Zdinak (6), Cam Hodgson (4), Owen Gilligan (4), and Tyler Paulding (2). Other players who assisted in the Thunder victory both on offense and defense were, Matt Dugan and Jack O’Neil.

Celtics 30 – Wizards 24

The Wizards played their best all-around game of the season against the Celtics on Saturday. They started off slow offensively scoring but the ball movement, hustle and defense helped keep the game close at the end of the first quarter and gain the lead at half by the score of 10-8. Ian Tacey, Logan Singleton, Stephen Duquette and Sean McMahon’s extra efforts made their presence known under the boards which they lost the battle in the previous game. The ball movement and passing from Adam Trudeau and Calvin Silva allowed Dominic Cohen, Alec Sokol and Sean McMahon to take high percentage shots which were all close but they would not drop for the team. The Wizards came out cold in the third quarter which the Celtics were able to capitalize on and take a lead of 22-13. But in the fourth quarter, with the pressure on defense caused by Nicholas Brooks, Adam Trudeau and Ian Tacey the Wizards were able to manage as a team 6 steals and score 11 points but were unable to hold off the Celtics.

Bucks 48 – Suns 36

Hornets 52 – Heat 35

Jazz 38 – Bobcats 30

Travel Program

The fourth Grade White team has continued to make strides in their inaugural season. On Saturday evening, February 7th, 4GW hosted Chelmsford at the Wynn School. These teams were meeting for the third time, and with Chelmsford’s margin of victories in the first two games at 39 and 24, 4GW faced an uphill battle. The game was close throughout most of the first half with Tewksbury leading 11-10 half way through the period, but a run in the last few minutes of the first half left Tewksbury trailing 20-13 at the break. The boys lost ground early in the second half, as Chelmsford outscored them 12-7 in the first 8 minutes of the period and extended their lead to 32-20. A 12-point deficit early in this season would have meant a blowout loss, but 4GW refused to give up. Led by William Eskenas who poured in 14 of his 21 points in the final minutes of the half, Tewksbury closed the gap to 4 points at the final horn, simply running out of time in their comeback effort. Dylan Paulding added 5 points with some great drives to the hoop. Noah Williams, Tim Panilaitis, JJ Svendsen and Kodie LeGrand each added a bucket as well. Alex Arbogast, Johnny Baker, and Bobby Branchaud each applied great defensive pressure, while Albie Bosworth came alive under the boards for some big rebounds late. While it was a loss in the scorebook, this team displayed outstanding resilience to battle back from a big deficit, and are starting to come together as the season heads towards the playoffs.