New Mission at Brighton

New Mission walked into Brighton undefeated at 3-0. They went to New York and won their first game and then toasted Charlestown in their house by 27. Brighton on the other hand just came off a 19 pt loss to Charlestown. Well, to both squads I say, welcome to the North Division of the Boston City Conference. But you still have to face each other. With a big crowd on hand and an electrifying crowd, here we go.

Nick Simpson, who is oh so used to playing against his AAU coach during the high school season started by only missing 1 of first 8 FTs. He dropped 10 pts in the quarter. New Mission's size beat themselves. With the hustle of the Bengals post players, the Titans found themselves on the wrong end of the then 18-10 score and called a timeout(1:33). More of the same pressure from the post had the gym excited.

Brighton 23 New Mission 15

New Mission came on next period though. In an attempt to contain Simpson who added another 7 pts that quarter, 6 different players scored. One of which was 6'1 sophomore transfer, Juwan Gooding from Milton High School, who along with bench forward, Samuel Freeman, who both put up 5 pts a piece to lead the 2nd quarter push. When they had finally succeeded in getting Simpson into foul trouble, Jason Jones would prove a good backup in the paint. He always seemed to be there in the heat of it. He put up 12pts. He hit a buzzer beater to keep the game tied at the half just as the Titans had established a small lead. Nick Simpson, even after returning to the game later would not score again. He finished with 17.

Brighton 37 New Mission 37

Immediately after the start, a couple hard fouls kept the ball in Brighton's hands. New Mission was slowly losing it. The Bengals' guard play led by all city point guard Malik James forced a Titan timeout(2:57). James had 13 at that point. It became very repititious for New Mission. A guard would miss a long ball. Brighton would rebound and one of those guards would shoot and/or go to the line.The Bengal lead increased to 10, which drew another New Mission timeout(1:29). In the same instance, during the timeout, James of Brighton would recieve a technical foul. (It was a small price to pay, after establishing a lead and getting their home crowd energized.)

Brighton 56 New Mission 49

James would only be seated briefly. In the midst of the return of Simpson and James for Brighton, it was the Titans turn to turn up. Fred Rivers would lead the comeback with 10 4th quarter points. Shaquan Murray would hit a 3 that caused a Brighton timeout(5:54) as the Titans took a 1 point lead. During another timeout, the already reseated Simpson caused a ruckus when he was taunted by New Mission fans. A 66-64 Brighton lead was in progress at this point. James started up again with 4 straight points to cause a Titan timeout(3:04) to retake a 2 pt lead. A technical was called on Juwan Gooding during a tie up(2:35) which sent James to the line to hit 2 more FTs. They led by 4. The possession after the technical in addition to an inside miss by New Mission led to 4 more points and a timeout called by New Mission(1:37) who was now down 8. A double technical involving Isshiah Coleman of the Titans caused a ruckus after Brighton's Prince Unaegbu secured the ball in a tie up(36.3). Two more fouls while they were in the bonus added 4 pts to James' total as he finished with 30pts. When the game was over, New Mission and Brighton had lost their cool so bad that officials at the game wouldn't allow the teams to shake hands for the safety of all players and people in the gym. Too much had transpired. The Titans took their first loss to their rival. This is the 3rd straight loss to them in 2 years and they see each other at least once more in Hyde Park at New Mission. Brighton improved to 2-2. The Titans are 3-1.

Brighton Bengals 79

Malik James 30, Nick Simpson 17, Jason Jones 12, Mark Mojica 10
D. Edwards 5, P. Unaegbu 5

New Mission Titans 68

Fred Rivers 14, Juwan Gooding 10, B. Jones 9, S. Murray 9, N. Anderson 6
C. Ebele 6, I. Coleman 5, S. Freeman 5, K. Harris 2, P. Gomez 2