BRIGHTON AT NEW MISSION

Gametime...this is for sole position of Boston South Division. Brighton Bengals and New Mission Titans at the Tobin Gym in Roxbury Crossing (heart of the city, I love it!). Bengals with a record of 7-1 having only lost to Brockton at the Rotary Classic Holiday tourney and New Mission with a record of 6-2 only loss to St. John's Prep and St. Anthony's (NJ) both come into this game undefeated in the city. So to the game we go...the first quarter was interesting as Mission shared the ball like crazy. They were at one point up 16-5. 7 players scored in the 1st. They kept it high pace and the Bengals defense couldn't contain sprints in the full court press they had. Since their 3-2 zone was using an inside focus, they couldn't stop the long ball in the first quarter. But the tempo switched in the 2nd quarter real quick, junior Nick Simpson would lead his squad with 8 of the teams 20 point 2nd qtr points. They walked into the half only trailing by 5 which is better than the 11 they tried to make up after the 1st. New Mission still didn't need much 2nd chance opportunities as their long ball was deadly to run through the half.

But onto the 3rd qtr we go...Brighton's hustle picked up and this time, it involved more players. Junior captain Daivon Edwards stepped up dropping 9 of his 12. Simpson added another 7. He finished with a team high 23. (It helps when the opponent you are playing has the coach you play AAU for.) Therefore, even if your team doesn't come up, no one will stop you from dominating. The slow climb in 2nd become a 3rd quarter ending 1 point deficit. It's on now!

This quarter was all about crucial turnovers in which New Mission would show weakness. The shots stop dropping and the inside focus from the height Brighton brought earlier in their zone started working. And then quick stops from the half court press that walked into a zone would bring the Titans to their knees. They couldn't hardly breathe except for the clutch 4 straight free throws at the 1:30 mark by Dashawn Fennel (only points of the game) and a couple baskets from Isshiah Coleman. With him playin post and being double and triple teamed most of the game through the ugly zone Brighton's bigs gave him he only dropped 10. After trailing the whole game, Malik James got the go ahead bucket at 1:33. He put up 10. With the rotation of James, Edwards and Theo Oribhabor who added another crucial go ahead basket around the minute mark. It was all over.

With this 60-58 win, Brighton did a few things. They move to a mark of 8-1. They end the 2 year home winning streak of New Mission and they take sole posession of first place atop the Boston City South Division. I spoke with Daivon Edwards, Malik James and Head Coach Hugh Coleman of the now leading Bengals. They had this to say after the game.

Brighton Bengals (8-1)- N. Simpson 23, D. Edwards 12, M. James 10, J. Mayes 9, T. Oribhabor 4, T. Dowman 2

New Mission Titans (6-3)- L. Hamilton 11, P. Gomez 11, I. Coleman 10, S. Murray 8, T. Watson 6, J. Deane 4, D. Fennel 4, F. Rivers 4

Ready to see what happens Feb. 8 for the rematch...SEE YOU THERE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR UPDATE

Happy New Year folks, My blog has been running a little bit slow to finish the year. I have gotten interviews after most of these games, but no story to really break down how it happened. Stay tuned for the interviews, my computer was having technical difficulties getting the videos uploaded. I will be back in full swing in the next couple of weeks. As the 2nd half of this season gets started, the divisions will pick up the intensity and I might have a little surprise for you this coming weekend. The only way to find out is to stay tuned. Thank you for your support in advance and I hope you all had a Happy New Year in addition to a Merry Christmas. For now, here are some of the scores from games I did catch in the past few weeks.


New Mission 60, St. John's Prep 69- BABC Class A 1st Round Match
West Roxbury 48, New Bedford 55-BABC Invitational Holiday Bracket
Madison Park 59, East Boston 61-Boston North Current 1st Place Game
Dorchester 58, New Mission 72

Brighton 89, Burke 47
Interview with Nick Simpson and Coach Kurtis Grant

Snowden 76, South Boston 71

Interview with Coach Megan Waterbury and Paul Maurice

New Mission 64, Cambridge Rindge and Latin 53- BABC Holiday Classic Class A 3rd Place

Interview with Coach Cory McCarthy and Leroy Hamilton

Madison Park 85, O'Bryant 62-School Rivalry

Interview with Coach Dennis Wilson and David Stewart

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

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)

History in the making!

New Mission is ready to make history. In the state of Massachusetts, never before has a team jumped from Division 4 to Division 2 or higher in one year and made that state final the same year. The Titans just did. After having won the division 4 state title last year, they are now one win away from the division 2 state title. A hard fought battle was finished in excellent style tonight as Hopkinton (South regional champs) fell to New Mission 67-57 at the TD Garden. The Titans made easy work of the North region beating Reading, Lynn Classical, Woburn and city-rival Brighton as they went to the Garden. They await the winner of the Central and West regions. They will take them on in Worcester at the DCU Center this Saturday at 4. I hope to see you there.

Tonights game featured a big turnup from the 2 all american nominees. Samir McDaniels and Kachi Nzerem both had big turnouts. McDaniels finished with a double-double as he posted 15pts and 17rebs with 4asts. His partner Kachi dropped 21 including 3 tre-balls. Charles Gunter and Leroy Hamilton added to the party with 13 pts a piece. It didnt seem like this win was evident in the early going though. At halftime the score was tied at 33. One major part in this second half turnup was the fact that no one had more than 2 fouls. They let them shot. I like to mention that the refs in this game showed excellent judgment with each call. It was the fairest calling of a matchup I have ever seen in the city. Hopkinton did have threats though. Big man Jake Doucette showed skill from beyond the arc hitting 2 3 balls. He is 6'7 and in Boston you just dont see that. His teammate Barrett Hanlon was the only other man who seemed to help the cause. They both scored 13. After Darius and Kachi finally started hitting long range, Isshiah Coleman ended the game with the only dunk of the game. New mission is going to the 'ship.

STATES IN FULL EFFECT!

UH OH! Beantown stand up...if you aint already heard, the champions of the city are Charlestown. They defeated East Boston who was the only team who beat them in the regular season. Right now though, its time to stand up. Going into this first weekend of the state playoffs, we see 4 teams making noise. This weekend in Division 2, New Mission as a #2 seed in the north region will play host to Lynn Classical. This should be an easy victory but i wouldn't jump out my seat quite yet. This bracket has already seen upsets including Lynn Classical as an 11 seed beating 6th seeded Chelsea. Lets not forget that East Boston beat New Mission in the city semifinals a week ago. That brings me to my other Division 2 spotlight game. Brighton is hosting. There is something wrong with that right? yes, Brighton didnt make the city playoffs so how could they host someone in the second round. How bout there opponent is 16th seeded Winchester who upset number 1 seed Wilmington. Yea, have fun with that one! Lets see if either of these Division 2 squads can keep it together this weekend. Into division one we go...Madison Park. Thats a story in itself. Last year, they lost at the Garden to Central Catholic who started a 6'11 center. Mp's tallest man was 6'6 off the bench. Guess what, he's gone and now Central Catholic has to go pay Charlestown a visit this weekend. Good luck! Townies and City MVP Akosa M. need to represent on their home floor which they are undefeated on this season. Meanwhile, lets see if Mansfield who lost last year in the Division 1 south regional semifinals can beat the team they lost to in a rematch this Saturday. That team, MP Machine. Beantown better represent this weekend.

I plan to be in attendance for a sweet doubleheader this Sunday afternoon.

Division 1 North region
Central Catholic at Charlestown-3pm

Division 2 North region
Lynn Classical vs New Mission at Reggie Lewis Center-5pm

Be there or be square and for any of you wanting to follow the updates...all brackets, scores, locations and times can be found at the MIAA website. www.miaa.net


CRUNKDUB FROM THE HEART OF THE CITY...EARLY!

City Title Preview

Uh oh, its time for the Boston City Championships. On ThursdayFebruary 24th, I encourage you to come out to a doubleheader of epic proportions featuring the 4 toughest teams in the city. Representing the South division are the West Roxbury Raiders and the New Mission Titans. And representing the North is the East Boston Jets and the Charlestown Townies. The way the bracket is set up is the top seed faces the 2nd seed of the opposite division. That will be your semifinal setup. And then the championship is the second matchup of the city title doubleheader the following day. So on Thursday the games will be at 4:00 and 5:30 pm. And the boys Boston City basketball championship is at 6:30 on Friday. (Sidenote: Unfortunately for me, I have a shift to work on Thursday from 2-8 that doesn't allow me to show up for the semifinals. I will be there on Friday for the championship.) This is why I want to toss out my prediction and give you just a little depth on what to expect for this tournament.

CHARLESTOWN VS WEST ROXBURY

The Raiders return 3 all stars this year in Givaughn Jones, Roger Paul and Jason Hall. Expect their somewhat deep lineup to spread out for mid range shots. The style of Westie usually shows 2 bigs including Jason Hall to attack the boards at all times and they rely on 2 shooters including Roger Paul to hit the outside shots. If he gets started, don't expect to shut him down. They have maybe one key ball handler and one key mid range threat off the bench. This matchup is going to be scary for them. They come into the tourney having lost a plethra of games but sweeping the 3rd ranked team in the conference. So because the only team in the division they couldnt beat was Mission twice, they are the South #2 seed and earned the spot to play the Townies. Charlestown is going to run it hard tomorrow. They come into this game having lost once in the city, they are too strong and they only lost by 4. Keep in mind it was on the road and in the tougher division. And it was the second of two tough games in two days. Which only occured because of snow day makeup games. Charlestown is too deep. The return one all star in Akosa Maduegbunam. He is apart of a duo who likes to play around with every team they face. Both him and Rony Fernandez average over 10 pts a piece. They both are deadly from the outside. Rony is an insult to anyone playing zone defense because his shot is better the farther you force him out of the paint and please understand that if you let him inside the paint hes going to score or be fouled. You have to foul him. There is no other option. Then you have Tyrik Jackson who at 6'5 is an excellent shot blocker and his hook shot which he uses for putbacks is consistent most of the time. Also they have 2 point guards in Iser Barnes and Tyerese Hoxter who if you sleep on them will drop an easy 20 on you in addition to the sixth man who is Omar Orriols. If you leave him open he will drop a 3 from the corner on demand. They average about 8o+ points a game. They beat St Johns Prep by 12 or more and they were the late season 1 seed in the state.

Projection: Charlestown in a blowout...94-71

NEW MISSION VS EAST BOSTON

The Titans and Jets did the same thing last year, playing once in the season and facing off in the semifinals. The Jets are all shooters. They return one all star in Jeff Amazan and his tandem with Stan Greene and Stan Winn will score like crazy. If you let any of them start they will not stop. Jeff Amazan and Stan Winn can easily drop 20 a game. They have alot of scorers off the bench too. But they rely way too much on the 3 ball and so if for any reason it doesnt drop consistently they will lose. A tough coach in Malcolm Smith is not going to help this one in the books. They just finished losing to the Titans the other day. Now they gotta face them again. Here is whats funny. They played zone against the Jets and barely beat them. If they play straight up, they are going to toast them. There is simply too much height and strength in the Titans. They start all 6 footers and all of the starters are returning all stars except for the center and hes just a sophomore. Two of them are McDonalds All American nominees for the state. That means their caliber is not to be messed with. They play way too hard inside and will dominate the boards. Their full court and half court trap will scare you into plenty of turnovers. So again I believe the Jets will lose.

Projection: New Mission in a sizeable one...75-63

I won't even begin to preview what will take place in the city title. If it turns out the way I saw it, Charlestown and New Mission in the city final will be the best game all year and rightfully so seeing as the championship should include the best teams. I don't know about you but I am ready and since I can't come tomorrow, I fully expect to see what I want in a beautiful game. Boston City are you ready...see you at the Madison Park Community Center in the heart of the city. It's gametime.