First Win Eases Pain of Key Injury for Boys Hoops [VIDEO]

The Wilmington boys basketball suffered two losses on Friday night. But on Tuesday, the Wildcats enjoyed a much-needed bounce back.

Leading scorer Vinny Scifo, who was likely to amass 1,000 points this year during his senior season, dislocated his shoulder and a tore his labrum during a loss to Reading on Friday that dropped the team to 0-3 on the year.

But during the opening game of the Wilmington holiday tournament on Tuesday, head coach Joe Maiella’s charges bounced back nicely thanks to a 62-52 win over Tewksbury.

Cole Peffer led all scorers with 18 points and was followed by Tim McCarthy, who poured home 16 markers of his own.

“Even with Vinny we were struggling offensively,” said Maiella. “With McCarthy and Peffer stepping up, that’s just huge for us. That’s what we need all season is that second guy to step up.”

McCarthy was big early in the third quarter, helping turn a six point halftime lead into a double digit cushion. The sharp shooter nailed a three, dropped home a floater and drew contact on the way to the hoop to push the Wildcat lead to 31-19 in the opening three minutes of play.

It was Peffer’s hot shooting late in the game that helped seal the game after Tewksbury made a run to slice its deficit to 51-44 with 3:30 to play.

On Wilmington’s next possession, Peffer nailed a shot from long range and then made it two straight soon after when he lined up a three from the corner and pushed the cushion back up to 57-45.

“It’s going to be hard without (Scifo), but we’re going to need to learn to play more as a team without him,” said Peffer. “I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Maiella is also confident that his team will be able to adjust following the loss of its star player. 

“We know we’ll struggle without Vinny at times,” said Maiella. “If we defend and keep teams under 50 points we’re going to be in every game, I know that. And I know these kids are going to fight, fight, fight.”