Travel to Worcester to meet Doherty in first round matchup on Saturday
By TYM BROWN
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High boys’ basketball team had a great, bounce-back win on senior night against Wilmington last Tuesday. This game was the second part of a back-to-back for Wakefield and was very important as the Warriors tried to get back on track with the regular season winding down.
DE’ARI BURTON converts an and-one during Wakefield’s win over Wilmington on Senior Night Feb. 20. (Alicen Encarnacao Racca Photo)
The savior on senior night ended up being junior Matt Beaver who posted his highest scoring total since the first game of the season with 15 points, making a career-high four 3’s along the way. It was huge for Wakefield to get their junior big man back on track as he struggled shooting-wise through the middle of the year in the starting lineup but has now rediscovered his rhythm on offense in a bench role. “In the middle of the season, my confidence was a little shook,” said Beaver after the game. “I kept shooting the ball, kept going through it, but now I got my confidence back and I’m shooting like I should be.”
The Warriors as a whole looked to be lacking confidence to start this game as the home team shot an abysmal 3-for-15 in the first quarter. This can be attributed to the hands-on, physical defense that Wilmington brought to the beginning of the game, which stopped Wakefield from finding a rhythm from the jump.
Thankfully for the Warriors, Wilmington’s shot-making abilities weren’t superb either to start the game as the Wildcats only scored 10 points in the first. Wakefield got a spark towards the end of the quarter when Beaver got a bucket to fall in the paint through some heavy contact, adding a free throw on to his tough basket to give Wakefield a 9-8 lead. Wilmington senior captain Ben Marvin responded with a turnaround finish in the Wakefield paint to end the quarter as a mundane first concluded with a score of 10-9 in favor of the visitors.
A low scoring total was not foreign to the Warriors against Wilmington as they had posted a season-low 37 points against the Wildcats in their previous matchup, a 47-37 Wilmington win on Jan. 26.
Senior captain Connor Mauriot drove across the paint for a left-handed finish, taking the lead for the Warriors to start the second quarter. Michael Lawler regained the lead for Wilmington with a lefty layup of his own, but Jack Millward (11 pts, 9 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl) responded immediately by freeing himself in the paint where De’Ari Burton (10 pts, 4 ast, 2 stl) hit him for the easy bucket. Millward then recovered a missed pass by the Wildcats on the defensive end and ran a fast break with senior captain Jackson McDermott (11 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast) who hung between two defenders for the transition finish. Wilmington clearly had no intent of letting the Warriors get momentum though as they took back the lead with a trifecta of free throws as well as a steal-and-score by sophomore Ryan Gray as he picked off a pass near midcourt and was alone for the finish.
With just three minutes left in the first half, the Warriors tied the game as they didn’t take a dribble past half court, only passing four times to feed Jackson Fitzpatrick (6 pts, 10 reb, 2 stl) inside to knot it at 17 all. Lawler would once again have a response for Wilmington as he hit from beyond the arc straightaway, followed by a 3 from Gray on the left wing to give the Wildcats their largest lead of night at six points. Beaver (15 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast) gave Wakefield some momentum back when he cashed his first triple of the game from a step beyond the arc, striking all nylon to cut the deficit to three at halftime.
The third quarter came up all Wakefield from start to end as the Warriors exploded on offense, doubling their scoring total at half in just one quarter. The true dominance for the home team derived from the paint as McDermott set the tone with a coast-to-coast take to the hoop, then assisted on an interior bucket by Jackson Fitzpatrick on the next trip up the floor. This basket took the lead briefly, but Marvin stepped through the lane to put the score back in Wilmington’s favor. Burton took this as his sign to get engaged as he took a strong drive to the hoop and finished through contact to put the Warriors ahead by two after converting the and-one.
DECLAN O’CALLAHAN gets past a Wilmington defender on Senior Night. (Alicen Encarnacao Racca Photo)
Michael Oatis got a second chance basket for the Wildcats to tie the game at 29 but Burton responded to this with a ridiculous left handed layup with another foul tacked on. This fully engaged the Wakefield crowd as the senior captain continued to supply tough buckets in critical moments.
Beaver was the next player to catch fire in this offensive barrage by Wakefield as he hit back-to-back triples and was absolutely fired up about it as he ran down the court, expanding the Warrior lead to seven. The Wildcats still continued to fight as junior Ayden Balter hit from deep to make it a two possession game, but a flashy no-look pass from Burton to McDermott for two gave the Warriors a six point lead heading into the fourth.
McDermott started the final quarter with another bucket as Mauriot whipped a pass to him under the hoop. The Wildcats struck back quickly as Marvin hit a triple from the left corner to start a hopeful comeback effort from the visitors.
It seemed the Warrior offense was unstoppable as Fitzpatrick got a basket inside off of a good find by Beaver, followed by another huge 3 by Beaver as he pulled up from the right corner without fear for his fourth of the game. By then, the Wakefield offense was fully in a flow state and there was nothing Wilmington could do to slow them down; they could only match their opponent as Burton and Millward drove confidently to the hoop four free throws and buckets to close this one out without much of a sweat.
After securing this senior night win, senior captain De’Ari Burton spoke candidly on how much it means to him to play with his fellow classmates.
“It means a lot, I really love this group,” said Burton. “When we say brotherhood after every timeout, beginning of the game, end of the game, it means a lot. We’re really a brotherhood, we fight through a whole bunch.”
“It’s a special group of seniors,” added Warriors head coach Colin Halpin. “We love that group, those guys work really hard every practice, every time we show up to film, every game we play. They’re the heart and soul of our team.”
With this win, Wakefield improved to 3-1 on the year when facing an opponent they previously lost to. This team has showed time and time again how quickly they learn from their mistakes and become better from them.
They’ll have to hope they have few mistakes ahead of them though as the Warriors will begin the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament with a tough matchup in Worcester as they take on the 10th seeded Doherty Highlanders on Saturday, March 2 at 2 p.m.
