Charlestown High School

I had the privilege of going to 2 games in a row for this live bunch of athletes. So I decided to do a combined story. Highlights and interviews will be posted in my next blog. The Charlestown Townies are 7-1 right now. They are officially the team to beat in the Boston North Division. Having not lost, they are the top rank in my book in the city. Led by Akosa Maduegbunam, and Rony Fernandez, this team of mostly juniors is putting teams to shame. They already play in the tougher of the 2 Boston divisions, then to add insult to injury, they haven't lost in the city yet. Their only loss came from Franklin High in a Christmas tournament this past school break. In the past 2 games, they had 4 scorers who averaged double digit points. The funny thing about it is, their leading scorer, an all star from last year as a sophomore, who hasn't started in the past 2 games because of disciplinary issues comes in at or about the 2nd quarter and doesn't turn up until halftime or after on the score sheet. You know what that means? They have a habit of beating teams without a need for him to play. They could actually win by double digits against most of the teams in the city without their double digit scorers. But that is just my opinion. They have a lot of height. I have between 3 and 6 picks for the all star game from thier team alone this year. One being, Akosa M. and his backcourt partner, Rony Fernandez. At any time, they don't even have to run the ball down, you have Tyerese Hoxter to do that and he is the tallest ball handler in Boston right now. He is listed at 6'4 and he is only in the 10th grade. Then you have drifters in CJ Dowdell, Iser Barnes, Mike Keough and Omar Orriols who all can be found at any given point for an easy basket. Big man Tyrik Jackson easily averages 12 points a game which could be more except for the fact that the Townies have a plethra of outside shooters and slashers. Maybe I am blowing them up too much, they have yet to play East Boston, Madison Park or South Boston. Not to mention, their toughest challenge which no doubt will be St. John's Prep at the end of this month. South Boston has been rumored to have a good squad. And I look forward to that matchup a couple days from now. Madison Park and East Boston both have less than perfect records having about 3 losses including at least one city loss so far. So I predict that CTown will have challenges but run through the division with no losses. We will find out soon enough. All I am saying is, look out for Charlestown to be a contender for a top spot in the city playoffs and definitely to make a run in Division 1 states. No doubt in my mind, they will have 2 all stars, maybe 3 if the Blue and Red Foundation does another all star game. Yessir, the Townies are on their way and off to a great start.

Last 2 games

Charlestown 75 at Boston Latin Academy 52 Akosa M. and CJ Dowdell 15/points a piece-leading scorers

Hope(RI) 44 at Charlestown 91 Akosa M. 18- leading scorer

NEXT STOP: IF THE WEATHER PERMITS, NEW MISSION AT BRIGHTON 1/12
SOUTH BOSTON AT CHARLESTOWN 1/13

Dorchester at New Mission

Ahhh, it's time to go down the street and see my squad hoop. New Mission is the defending Division 4 state champions and they moved up to Division 2. They lost their starting point guard and center to graduation but not to worry because they only got taller in their lineup. So here we go! From jump street, they came out firing. It was an 18-4 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. But they could've done alot better, they made sloppy turnovers. Their press keep Dorchester at bay. But 4 of the 5 starters accounted for all the points. On to the 2nd, and more of the same only this time, 5 players combined for 19 which of course more than the last quarter total. The only one who seemed to respond was Ronnie Jackson of the Bears who dropped 10 in that quarter alone. This time the same players dropped another 16 on them. New Mission led by at least 10 after each quarter. By the 4th quarter, it was smooth sailing for the Titans and they matched Dorchester point for point as both dropped 20 so New Mission after having a tough time against out of town opponents win another easy Boston South matchup against Dorchester 73-54. Not much of a story huh? They blew them out with ease. Hopefully next week brings a better tougher opponent in Brighton. looking forward to it. I had interviews with Samir McDaniels and Coach McCarthy after the game who had this to say.

So here is your box score and player totals.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final

New Mission 18 19 16 20 73

Dorchester 4 18 12 20 54

New Mission- S. McDaniels-15 D. Davis-15 K. Nzerem-13 L. Hamilton-12 N. Anderson-8

C. Gunter-5 N. Joseph-3 J. Morgan-Thames-2

Dorchester- K. Nelson- 14 R. Jackson-14 D. Bass-13 D. Mathurian-8 D. Cora-Perez- 3

NEXT STOP: HOPE HIGH(RI) AT CHARLESTOWN

Madison Park at East Boston

Welcome to the Boston's biggest high school rivalry, it's not as big as North-Hopewell but it'll do. Last year, they split a season series losing their home games. Hopefully, it would be better. And it would be. From the start, it would be high scoring, the Cards would take a 6 point early run lead by point guard Ray Edwards and their big men who would dominate inside early. But Coach Smith wasn't going for that, so before the 4 minute mark of that quarter, he would upgrade his lineup, so that the Jets players were guarding someone their height or smaller. Then they started pulling 3s and making them. I must emphasize that, they made 3s. Usually teams always drive to the hole or play big, and with the interview I caught with Coach Smith after, he brought out an excellent point. If you are going to play college ball, you better be able to shoot. So if you come to East Boston, one thing you are guaranteed to do is be able to shoot. And with this upgrade and aggressive shooting, the Jets took a 8 pt run late and a 4 pt lead to end the 1st quarter. In the 2nd, Coach Wilson didn't care, he used his starting 3 big men to account for all 18 pts it took to tie up and lead by 1 into the half. The Cardinals put backs and drawn fouls in the paint slowed down the Jets. In the 3rd, it became 2 on 1 as Roderick Tyler would hustle and highlight for MP and Stan Winn and Jeff Amazan would highlight for Eastie, who took back the lead for the Jets and combined for 17 of the 18 that give them a 4pt pt lead into the final quarter. The battle raged on as Dakim Murray and Khayree Hudson would continue to dominate int the paint. But in the end it was clutch shooting from Amazan who would drop 26 including 4 3s, to squeeze out a home win against their Boston North rival. The Jets post an even 3-3 record and look forward to the rematch in Roxbury later this season. Here is your box score and player totals.

1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
EAST BOSTON 17 13 18 17 65
MADISON PARK 13 18 14 17 62


EAST BOSTON- J. Amazan-26 S. Winn-12 A. Senior-10 A. Jean-5 K. Bush-4 P. Santos-4
I. Jones-2 K. Ramos-2

MADISON PARK- K. Hudson-16 D. Murray-15 R. Tyler-14 R. Matthews-11 G. Turner-2
J. Soares-2

NEXT STOP: DORCHESTER AT NEW MISSION

Somerville at Burke

Gametime in Grove Hall! To the Burke we go as the Bulldogs host the Highlanders of Somerville High School. Intimidating from the start, you would think Somerville was going to win seeing as Burke only had one big man and a 7 man roster. But never underestimate, David beat Goliath right? Jakhari Christopher went off to the races with stunt after stunt. He dropped 10 points in the first quarter alone combined with another 10 points from 2 other starters which gave them a 25-13 first quarter lead. The guards took over with not only assists and multiple steals on the wing but blocks as well. Then to add insult to injury their only big man got in foul trouble and sat most of that quarter and next. Their opponent staggered out of the gate showing weak hustle and defense not to mention a tall stature that did almost no rebounding. But at the start of the next quarter that mess ceased real fast as Coach Antonelli fussed his players all the way out, the 2nd quarter the 3 pt misses changed into 15 and 18 foot field goals that dropped like crazy. This is when Somerville guards Skerby Odivin and Billy Bonnet took off, they couldn't be stopped. They would post 11 of 16 pts to crawl within 6 of the Bulldogs at the half. Even though Burke's big man was back in they couldn't finish at the basket and didn't knock down free throws. So in the 3rd quarter, you can understand how Somerville's guards played with more intensity. Odivin and Bonnet would combine for 13 of another 16 this time taking the first lead of the game and keeping it for good. In the fourth quarter, Burke gave a good effort even though, 2 of the 7 guys on the Bulldogs walked out of the gym literally after getting one technical foul a piece. That left one bench player to fill in as only 5 players with no bench finished almost the entire quarter. Odivin would seal it for them, going to the line 3 times in which he would score 6 points which included the techs which were all shot at once. His guard play was nearly unstoppable and he finished with 23. His backcourt buddy, Bonnet finished with 20. This game was given away by a lack of effort by Burke and an intense push by the Highlanders backcourt. Somerville beat Burke in their house 64-59. Here is your box score and player totals.

1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
SOMERVILLE 13 16 16 19 64
BURKE 25 10 9 15 59


SOMERVILLE- S. Odivin-23 B. Bonnet-20 K. Silva-7 G. DeMoura-5 J. Thomas-5 S. Julce-2
M.Laurent-2

BURKE- J. Christopher-18 D. James-14 Chris Nelson-11 James Nelson-8 B. Lim-8

NEXT STOP: MADISON PARK AT EAST BOSTON

East Longmeadow at Madison Park

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And welcome back to CrunkDub Hoops. Reporting live from the heart of the city, I bring the action back to Roxbury where the defending Boston City champions were in action against East Longmeadow. This is the second time the Cardinals have hosted an out of town team that came a long distance. First it was Mt Pleasant and now East Longmeadow. But again, this was an easy test to pass for the Cardinals, potential all star Kharee Hudson went to work from jump street. He dropped 9 of his 22 in the first quarter. He also finished with 18 rebs on the night. No answer for the man as he had 3 dunks in the game, one in each of the last 3 quarters. The only person who could compete with him from the Spartans was Lou Rodriguez who dropped 8 of his 10 in the first quarter. He would be injured early in the second quarter and sit the rest of the game. Seeing as he was their only threat so far the Cardinals would continue the bashing by evenly distributing the ball between 7 players in the second quarter. By halftime Gregory Turner would have his 11 points. 7 of which he dropped trying to trade shot for shot with Kharee in the first. By halftime it was 41-19 Cardinals. So you would think by now they would quit. But no, onward went the Spartans led by other guard Brandon Bosworth who would drop 2 3s in the 3rd. he would finish with 11 , all of his points were scored in the 2nd half. That effort was apart of 7 3s put in by East Longmeadow in the 2nd half. MP kept pounding away, this time Dakim Murray would step up with 13 of 15 being dropped in the 2nd half. The Spartans had way too much on their plate in this one. Even with 3 players dropping double digits for the game, MP had 4. They were outscored in every quarter, the worst of it coming by way of a 19-5 2nd quarter tally by MP. The defending champs keep on rolling and post a record of 5-2. They win the game 79-53 at home and look forward to a rivalry matchup at East Boston this coming Thursday. Last year, they blew them out by 24 in their house, but lost at home in overtime. Here is your box score and player points for the game.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
MP 22 19 18 20 79
EL 14 5 15 19 53

Madison Park- K. Hudson 22 D. Murray 15 G. Turner 11 D. Stewart 10 R. Matthews 9 K. Still 5
J. Baez 4 D. Lawladonnie 2

E. Longmeadow- B. Bosworth 11 D. McFoill 11 L. Rodriguez 10 B. McAllister 8 S. Blake 6
R. Hollaway 5 T. Mauer 2

NEXT STOP: SOMERVILLE AT BURKE

Clips and Footage Madison Park vs E. Longmeadow