THE FINAL FOR BOTH JUNIOR AND SENIOR BOYS ARE SET

Thursday night was rocking at St Stephen’s Field House as both the Junior boys and Senior Boys held there Final 4 starting at 6 PM Thursday evening.  The gym was bursting at the seams with crowds estimated at between 2,500 and 3,000 fans!!!!  OK, I admit it, I got too excited and added a couple of zeroes.  At any rate, we have never seem turnout like this.  The Jr Boys fans make the Senior Boys fans look like “pikers”!!!!

So first of all, we are limited in our descriptive accounts and our ability to give full credit to players because the Jr Boys score books are limited to only first names for players.  Actually, it’s probably a good thing considering this column’s history for misspelling and occasional jabs at player’s last names….SOOOOO…in the first game of the night, Wolbert got off to a roaring start taking an impressive 1st quarter lead 11-4 on the back of spectacular shooting by Liam, Ian and Devin (you know, this is much easier).  Petroski answered in the second closing the lead to 22-18 with brilliant long range shooting from Luke with 2 of his game high 7 three point shots.  Jackson helped Wolbert keep the lead with a strong 9 point Q2 output.

The blue team poured it on in the third outscoring the green team 20-7 as Luke continued his long range mastery draining 4 bombs to stand at 38-29 at the end of the third.  The 4th quarter was evenly played but Petroski did not yield any part of the lead as Luke proved he is well rounded as a player by going 6 for 6 from the free throw line.  The blue team advanced to Saturday’s Final with an impressive 52-42 come from behind win.  BTW, Luke put up an impressive 33 points including 6 for 6 from the free throw line in Q4 in the winning effort.  Jackson bucketed 19 for the losers.

In the other final, offenses by Brown and Bolster seemed anemic as both teams clamped down on defense in a battle of punches and counter punches.  Action was frantic from the beginning with steals, blocks, traps and missed and contested shots.  At the end of the first, the score was 5-5…like a high scoring hockey game.  The second was more of the same as both teams were sizing each other up, stopping potential surges with lock down defense and clever trapping.  10-9 at the half….yikes will either team break 20.   Then it happened.  Brown adjusted knowing that both teams were packing the interior, he unleashed a long distance of three pointer including 3 buckets from game high scorer Jimmy to take a commanding 22-12 lead into the final stanza!!!  Defense picked up again and the final results was Brown prevailing 25-18 to advance to the final.

The Senior Boys league can’t wait for these eight graders to come up and join us next year.

In the Senior Division, upset minded Haynes came to the gym itching to make a statement early and set the tone for the game.  Wolfe’s boys had different ideas spreading their offense to 4 scorers with a balanced attack that resulted in a 12-7 lead after Q1.  Just like every other game in these playoffs where only one team scored more than 50 points in any game, both teams hunkered down on defense….just win one quarter at a time.  That is exactly what the orange team did by out scoring Wolfe but only closing the gap to 24-20 at the break.  Hassan Yousafzai lead all scorers in the half with 10 points for the purple team.  All Star Rocky Remines matched Hassan with 10 of his own, only in the second quarter.

After the break, Wolfe really turned up the heat on defense, no one on the orange team could get a hot hand and when the smoke cleared, Wolfe held a 35-24 lead that they would never relinquish.  Wolfe’s balanced attack included Yousafzai (10), Seth Jacobs (10), Sam Clarke (9) and high flying Hunter Elrod (8) in as fast and balance a team as we have seen all season.  The final was 47-37 as Haynes, with the player like Remines (13), Jackson Barioto (8), Don Crisp (8) and Tyler Ruch (6) unable to buy a bucket down the stretch.

Game 2 of the Final 4 had real promise as two of the most athletic teams in the league faced off for a chance to play for all the marbles!!!  Matthews jumped out to an early lead at the end of Q1 11-8 with Ethan Long scoring 5 of his game high 18 points to help mthe pink team settle in.  Kimmett’s squad answered in the second on the back of Nick McGhin’s 6 of his team high 12 points in that 9 minutes.  Blue lead pink 21-19 at the intermission.  Then Coach Matthews dropped the hammer at the same time Kimmett went cold.  Pink went on a 13-7 run to take back the lead 32-27 with 9:00 to play.  When you are behind, you must foul your opponents and get them on the line….then use your timeouts to stop the clock…very sound strategy.  Matthews went to the line 13 times in the 4th and only made 4 free throws….I thought my head would explode!!!!  Anyway, that may have been a little exaggerated….and at one point, Kimmett close the lead to 4 points with 2:00 to go….they just couldn’t buy a key bucket as pink ended up winning 46-38.

Matthews had three players score in double figures including Long with 18, Ryan Bauer with 12 and Brady Fitzpatrick with 11.  Along with McGhin’s 12, Finn Clarke and Austin Safran scored 6 each.

The Final is set pitting 5 seed Wolfe against 2 seed Matthews in a shootout/slugfest you don’t want to miss.