Tuesday, December 20, 2011

CHARLESTOWN AT EAST BOSTON

Uh-oh...the long awaited Boston North division battle part 1 is upon us. Charlestown, the reigning Boston City champions walked into East Boston relaxed, calm, cool and collected. Knowing that they beat this same team twice last season, one of which was for the city title combined with the reputation that they gave the D1 state champions their only loss is alot to be proud of. Unfortunately, this time you don't have all star CJ Dowdell and city MVP Akosa Maduegbunam to play with. You also don't have the 6'10 junior forward Jon Grullon(season ending surgery) you just recruited. So being relaxed wasn't an option. With the loss of all star Jeff Amazan and other talent such as Stan Winn, the Jets have a serious chip on their shoulder. So like I said...uh-oh! It's gametime and....he we go.
Very aggressive into the 1st come the Jets led by point guard Pat Santos and big man Will March. March would show very dominant in the blocks drawing a lot of fouls and putbacks. And Santos led a charge that attacked every position every possession. This only caused a slim lead to end the 1st. 14-11 was the score due to the fact that CTown couldn't hit from anywhere until halfway through that quarter. So now begins the bleeding...ZACH GATTEREAU...who was supposed to start but found an attitude adjustment that forced him to play 6th man lit a match under his behind that sparked a 22 point pickup between himself and Santos early in the 2nd quarter. Not only had Eastie found a stroke on the fast break but Ctown couldn't control the paint and so they found themselves in the bonus early that same quarter. Finally a little bit later in the 2nd, CTown found a bandage in the form of low post openings when they decided to force them into half court sets. The heavy rotation of the ball left men under the basket wide open a few times. This, of course did not stop the obvious rushing of the ball upcourt which caused plenty of turnovers. The only 2 playing the game it seemed were Tyrese Hoxter and Omar Orriols for CTown who finally got a rhythm to start driving to the hole. Since the rest of the team couldn't pick up the slack though...the Townies found themselves down 39-23 at the half. In the 3rd, Hoxter took over dropping 10 of his 25 points. He was literally the only consistent scorer for CTown. Orriols couldn't follow up once he got his 4th foul in the 3rd. So the bleeding continued to end the 3rd with Eastie up 50-35. More of the same followed in the 4th, Omar who was known for his outside offense couldn't produce and lacked the inside out game he had for defense. The man he defended, Gattereau, jacked 2 hard 3s and he would foul out 3rd with 46.7 left in the game. He finished with 9. The 1st to go was Iser Barnes who finished with only 2. He left at the 4:41 mark of the 4th. He couldn't stop the floor general in Pat Santos who finished the game with 14. Zach Gattereau would continue the damage by hitting 8pts in the 4th. 5 of those were from the strip. And when Hoxter who lead CTown's rhythm the whole game fouled out at the 1:14 mark of the 4th, it was all over. So Eastie prevailed in somewhat of a revenge match at home 68-58. Both teams move to a mark of 3-1...Charlestown heads into a long vacation with no holiday tournament and alot to think about. Eastie is excited as they prepare for the Kroc Center Classic where they play Bishop Loughlin(NY) and another out of state team. The other city team there will be New Mission who meets St. Anthony's (NJ). Oh what a treat. This is the Beantown representa...CrunkDub aka ChillWill. I leave you with this that Coach Smith had this to say after the game. Have a goodnight!

East Boston- Z. Gattereau- 24, P. Santos- 14, K. Fox- 7, K. Bush- 5, K. Ramos- 4, T. Moore- 4, W. March- 3, E. Jean- 3, A. Senior- 2, I. Jones- 2 (68)

Charlestown- T. Hoxter- 25, T. Jackson- 10, O. Orriols- 9, T. Wilson- 5, R. Fernandes- 4, I. Barnes- 2, J. Abdullah- 2, R. Gunter- 1

Monday, December 19, 2011

Dorchester vs Cambridge Rindge+Latin

Welcome back to another season...tonight's matchup features a power squad in the Falcons of Cambridge Rindge&Latin who finished 19-2 last year and played deep into the states. They came to Dorchester Academy in search of another win as they are already 2-0. The Bears weren't quite ready to hear that this year. Even with their 1-1 record so far...Dorchester was ready for battle. So here we go. The Bears took off quickyl led by senior guard Jeduan Langston who dropped 10 of his team's 14 first quarter points. Showing his range early often they pulled out with a statement. But the Falcons using their inside height would show confident in their game as they pulled alot of boards and putbacks...first it was Kevin Lovanay of CRL to draw plenty of fouls in the 2nd quarter. He scored all 13 of his points in the first half. Even though the score looked even...CRL walked into the half with a 33-30 lead. The reason it stayed so close was becasue of the half court play by the Bears who had a lot of fun setting up plays for their forwards. Most shots went down and therefore, it wasn't evident that second chance opportunities were needed. But onto the 3rd where Langston would drop 4 of the 6-0 to start the half. they kept the lead going into the 4th as CRL was unable to finish plays and hit free throws in the middle half the last 2 quarters. But it was time for Marcus Faison to step up. Leading the Falcons in the 4th quarter he would drop 6 of his 12 and aggressively handle the boards especially seeing as 8 of his 12 were made at the foul line. They came back hard and steady to bring it within 2 at the 21.2 mark of the 4th. Fouling into the bonus at 19.8 they gave away a free throw that would setr up the chance to tie. And the hero would come from their bench. Edinson Correra would step into a 3 from the right wing and hit a buzzer-beating tiebreaker to send the game into OVERTIME!
It turns out that even with the rotation of big men that Dorchester showed (because they definitely had more intimidating height then last year) they couldn't keep the lead. So in overtime, Langston would attempt to keep them afloat with 4 quick points, but an even spread from 3 of the 5 starters at CRL and a couple fouls gave the game to the Falcons as a perfectly set 3 pointer did not go for Darius Bass who finished with 8. Another heartbreaker for the Bears at home puts them 1-2 as they head into Christmas break. Coach Williams of the Bears didn't seem as disappointed and seems more confident in his team's ability to go far this year into the playoffs. I spoke with the coach and Langston after the game who had this to say.

Point Totals

Cambridge Rindge&Latin- K. Lovanay 13, M. Faison 12, D. Bailey- 10, G. Edwards-9, F. Deneus-6, M. Hill-6, C. Graham III- 5, E. Correra-4, M. Bradley-3 (68)

Dorchester- J. Langston-27, A. Enselm-8, D. Bass-8, B. Andrews-6, K. Newson-6, D. Cora-Perez-4, J. Kallon-2, R. Jackson-2, C. Agnew-Carter-2 (65)