Boys’ hoop team has game, but no win

Warriors come up short against Arlington in home opener

Published in the December 23, 2016 edition.

By DAN BYRNE

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Memorial High School varsity boys’ basketball team held its home opener on Thursday nigh as it played host to Arlington at the Charbonneau Field House.
Wakefield came in hungry for a win having lost its previous two games, both on the road, to Lexington and Reading. Arlington came in riding a wave of momentum having defeated Watertown and Melrose in its first two games.
Wakefield gave the Spy Ponders a game, never falling behind by more than six points, but ultimately couldn’t come up with the “W” in front of the home crowd, falling 65-60.
It was a sloppy first quarter from both teams, as the refs called a tight game. Arlington took advantage of the way the game was being called and aggressively attacked the basket, leading to four trips to the free throw line in the first quarter. Wakefield managed just one trip to the line, but was able to keep pace with Arlington’s scoring and after the first quarter the Warriors trailed 19-14.
The Warriors got the offense going in the second quarter, as Alex McKenna put up 10 of his 14 points in the second frame. Wakefield outscored Arlington 18-14 in the second quarter and the halftime deficit was just one point for the Warriors.
Scoring was hard to come by in the third quarter, with neither team able to get it going on offense after the teams’ switched ends.
John Evangelista had six of his points in the third quarter, while Andrew DeLeire added five to account for all of Wakefield’s 11 points in the quarter. Arlington’s offense wasn’t any better, as the Spy Ponders struggled to get the ball to the basket through Wakefield’s strong defense.
DeLeire and Evangelista led the Warriors in scoring with 16 points each for the game.
Wakefield put 17 on the board in the fourth quarter, including seven from DeLeire but Arlington made the plays it needed to stay on top.
It was tough going for Wakefield trying to stop Arlington’s James Gascoigne throughout the game, as he finished with 23 points, but it was especially difficult in the fourth quarter. The sophomore had 12 points in the fourth quarter, including a dagger three-pointer with under three minutes to play to make it a two possession game.
Arlington got 24 points from senior guard Colin McNamara, including going 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to seal the win for the Spy Ponders.
Warriors head coach Brad Simpson spoke after the game, as he mentioned the fact that his team had very little time to prepare for this game and what he might have done differently had they been able to game plan more.
“They have a very good combination of point guard and forward with McNamara and Gascoigne,” Simpson said, “We only had one day to prepare, but in preparing we work every day on defending the pick and roll and we didn’t do a very good job stopping them today. It was too easy.
“I thought the rest of our defense was outstanding,” the coach said, highlighting the pick and roll as the team’s Achille’s Heel. “We’ll work on end game situations.”
Some things Simpson saw out there he liked included Evangelista, McKenna and DeLeire’s offensive output. “I thought they had super all-around games,” as the three seniors helped keep this one close for the Warriors.
Simpson made sure to highlight Joe Smith’s defense saying, “He always gives us tremendous defensive presence. He is coming along on offense but he just does so many things on defense with his athleticism that it’s hard to take him off the floor.”
Smith’s impact defensively was paramount, as the team fell behind in the fourth once Smith picked up his fifth foul.
Wakefield’s record has fallen to 0-3 on the year, and they’re going to be hungry for a win next time out but coach Simpson sent a message to his team to not get discouraged saying, “I told them, last year at this time we were 1-2 and we turned it around and won our division title and a tournament game.”
Wakefield’s next game won’t be until after the holiday break is over. The Warriors host Stoneham on Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Charbonneau Field House.
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Arlington 65, WAKEFIELD 60
At Charbonneau Field House
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Arlington (65) — Karalis 0 1 1; McNamara 7 10 24; A. Black 0 0 0; Kim 0 0 0; Gascoigne 10 1 23; D. Black 6 2 15; MacGillivray 0 0 0; Wasco 0 2 2; Pazzia 0 0 0; Swift 0 0 0. Totals 23 16 65.
WAKEFIELD (60) — Evangelista 5 3 16; Miller 1 0 2; Marcus 0 0 0; Carmilla-Smith 3 1 7; O’Brien 0 0 0; Hinchey 0 0 0; McKenna 4 6 14; Price 2 1 5; DeLeire 6 3 16. Totals 21 14 60.
Score by Quarters — Arlington 19-14-10-22 — 65. WAKEFIELD 14-18-11-17 — 60.
Three-point FGs — Arl, Gascoigne 2, D. Black 1. Wak, Evangelista 3, DeLeire 1.