Friday, December 19, 2014

Madison Park at Charlestown

Welcome back folks to another year of Boston City Boys Basketball. It's been a while. The new job and my activity playing in leagues outside of Boston has kept me busy. I gotta keep in shape too. If these young guys can do it, I can too! With that, we head to the action.

Charlestown and Madison Park both coming off losses look to see what they can do to fix it. The bigger worry was the Cardinals 30 point loss to Eastie in their season opener. It's even worse when you lose like that at home. But you can only play with what you have and they only had 1 returning starter in all city point guard Mike Benitez. They pulled up 5 guys from JV and here we go.

After the first shot from the baseline hit for 3, Madison Park timeout (7:43). Uh oh, this is going to be a long night for the Cards. The Townies are big and they spread the floor all the way out. Another 2 3s including PG Anicel Pouriet's only points of the game would put CTown on a 9-2 run. Line change. Literally. (6:29) How is it possible for them to be this deep...well Coach Cardoso wasn't lying when he said he has 8 seniors, and when you have that much talent, they all want a shot at what could turn out to be the weakest team in the league, let alone the division. Led by backup PG Jeffrey Ramos this would provide much added depth off the bench. Enter 6'1 G Danny Hill, sophomore, for the Cards. he would literally score all 8 points MP finished the first quarter with. The struggle was real but not fir him, especially the way he pulled out plays in the Eastie game.  FLASHBACK: (This is where I wish I recorded games and had footage to show.) 1st half of the Eastie game. Hill off of a rebound dribbles to half fumbles the ball past one defender, drops low between 3 more, spins around and finishes with a fierce vertical dunk I couldn't even believe. I said, ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Back to reality. I can believe it. Why? Since he did almost the same exact play going the opposite way in this game. If he isn't an All Star, someone did the ballot wrong. And on any other team, he is still capable of the 20 points per game he will probably average all season.

END 1    CHARLESTOWN 25    MADISON PARK 4

Here comes Hill again, If I could be blunt for a second almost every rebound and score went to him in the first half of the 2nd quarter. That was enough to wake up the floor general Benitez would join his efforts as the tandem would put up 13 of the 15 points the Cards produced before half. But oh boy Jeffrey Ramos and a fella by the name of Keywan Platt (you're gonna want to remember that name) stepped into play. Platt, a 6'4 junior forward, was seriously in the mix on both sides of the floor. he ran it just as well as his defensive assignment. Perhaps that's why Hill was so tough for the Cards, any shot these 2 guys made was well earned due to tight coverage speed and height. And being that they are only a sophomore and junior respectively, you will see both play each other again next season. Now that transfer rule is in effect, I'm sure they aren't going to sit out a year if they went anywhere else. Platt would be the team's leading scorer in this game with 16. His opponent would put up a 20 piece.

END 2   CHARLESTOWN 46    MADISON PARK  19

So I guess my question is if Charlestown was beating the snot out of these Cardinals at the half, what happened that they couldn't keep their undefeated streak alive vs a BLA team? Latin Academy beat them by 1 point over in Roxbury the other night. I'll have to do my research. Something sounds sketchy about that. And as my friend Danielle (a proud BLA alumni) said, Trust me it won't be happening too much more this season. Well we will just have to see about that now huh?

Back to the action in the 3rd, Only the worst would come. Another line change at the 4:07 mark spelled out what was already in progress. Charlestown was literally up 30. 55-25. It seemed like they would just go through the motions. What seemed like a mental breakdown would stop Benitez from scoring and Hill even slowed down himself dramatically 3 times in the 3rd. It kinda got tough, pep talks were in order and oh did he get them. He has plenty of games left and 2 more years of play to will himself to a title or better yet a shot to play D1 somewhere. He has the skills  I'm sure he will grow. But for now relaity set in as Warfa Abdillahi and his cohart in the paint Mr. Platt would hammer down. Those 2 were a deadly combination. And with a guy like Pouriet and Ramos handling the ball at will, its going to be tough to stop. Abdillahi had 10 including 2 of the 3 tre-balls that started the game. All he does is hit from the corner. That shot though...

END 3   CHARLESTOWN 61   MADISON PARK 28

The 4th quarter was all she wrote before it got started. In walked the rest of the Townie bench. A quiet 10 points or so on each side would walk us out of this MP nightmare. Both Hill and Benitez would contribute and maybe next time at the Mattadome, maybe just maybe they will find some type of spark to at least make a game out of this. That game barring any changes is in the new year and report cards will have come out. Maybe some new talent will join the team or maybe a bit of luck. But they are young. Charlestown on the other hand should remain solid all year once someone gives me an explanation as to what unfolded at Latin Academy.

FINAL  CHARLESTOWN 72   MADISON PARK  39

CHARLESTOWN    72  (3-1)

Keywan Platt  16   Warfa Abdillahi  10  J. Ramos 9  J. Joseph 7  C. Conway 6 R. Perriera 6
T. Jackson 4 A. Porcel 3 J. Raines 3 A. Frias 2 C. Washington 2 J. Marcel 2 L. James 2

Next: @ North Smithfield  12/20  3:00pm

MADISON PARK   39  (0-2)

Danny Hill   20    Michael Benitez  10   D. Mercado 5  T. Howard  2   E. Moore  2

Next: @Mt. Pleasant   12/20  2:30pm

No postgame interview. Rematch is scheduled for January 29th at Madison Park.

Next stop: DORCHESTER AT ENGLISH  12/19  6PM