With 30 seconds left in Monday night’s EMass Final, Madison Park trailed Central Catholic by 10 points when the Cardinals’ coach Dennis Wilson walked down his bench and shook each and every one of his players hands, thanking them for the magical run that was the longest in program history.
“That was about thanking them for the season, thanking them for the love that we have for each other and thanking them for all of the love and joy that they brought to me and this school and this community,” Wilson said after the 59-50 loss at TD Garden.
“These guys don’t just represent Madison Park they represent Boston and I think we represented them in a fine fashion.”
Titans defeat Cathedral High to win first state title
By Justin A. Rice
With about 1 minute and 15 seconds remaining in the Division 4 state championship boys’ basketball game on Monday afternoon at TD Garden, members of the New Mission girls’ basketball team started chanting “Cory, Cory, Cory, Cory!”
“Cory,” is the Titans boys’ coach Cory McCarthy, who led the girls program to their first ever state crown in 2007.
“Those were my girls in 2007,” McCarthy said after duplicating the feat by coaching the boys’ team to its first ever state championship by beating Cathedral High, 75-47, on Monday afternoon. It was great.
“New Mission High kids, I always tell people when I go on the train and when I go in public you can always pick out New Mission kids. Not because they’re the loudest but because they are usually the most well spoken, are aware of their surroundings and can have a conversation with anybody. This is for New Mission.”
When the previous boys’ coach left a team that was the doormat of the City League from its inception, McCarthy figured it was easier to take over the boys’ program himself and find a new girls’ coach.
But despite the fact that McCarthy is also New Mission’s Dean of Students, he still had to earn the boys’ trust.
“Corey coming in as a girls coach, I was thinking ‘He knows nothing about boys’ basketball,’” junior guard Samir McDaniels said after scoring 17 points against Cathedral on Monday. “So it was kind of hard for us to trust him. Girls’ basketball is a totally different story to be honest.
“Honestly, it took a couple practices and a couple games for him to show us he knows what he’s talking about, what he shows us actually works. We learned to trust each other. We became a family.”
Taking over the program last season, the easiest way for McCarthy to prove he knew what he was doing in those early days was to tell his players he’s coached on the famed parquet.
By the time they lost in the quarterfinals of the state tournament last season, McCarthy had well won over his new guys.
“We didn’t practice hard last year because they were still feeling me out, ‘Do I want to play for this guy, he thinks I’m a tough guy,’” McCarthy said. “Once they found out how much I loved them it changed. There’s a lot of love in that locker room.
“Thank you guys for allowing me to prove that I’m not a liar. This is where they want to be, they’re in awe of this place. I’m in awe of this place, in absolute awe of this place.”
The New Mission boys’ basketball team are off to the Division 4 state title game on Monday at the TD Banknorth Garden and will meet up with the Cathedral High Panthers. The Titans, led by Cory McCarthy, decisively defeated the Winthrop Vikings on Saturday, 70-38, at Emmanuel College.
Right from the start, the Titans were up by nine and ended the first period 19-8. At halftime, the Titans were comfortably ahead 34-14 and looking for more as the game resumed. Junior Samir McDaniels had a game-high with 19 points and the 1000th of his career in the third. Ousamane Drame and Kachi Mzerem each contributed 10 points. At the conclusion of the game, the tall Titans were presented their Division 4 North section trophy. The Titans are now 22-1 and will face Cathedral (19-5). The Panthers are hot too, defeating Westport on Saturday at Umass Boston by a score of 66-49.
Cardinals blow past Mansfield for first sectional title since 1982
By Jamie Rosa and Justin A. Rice
The Madison Park boys’ basketball team won its first South Sectional title since 1982 on Friday night, defeating Mansfield High 72-60 at TD Garden.
“I’m so much more happy for them, they worked for this since March,” Madison Park coach Dennis Wilson said after coaching his first game at the Garden. “We got three honor roll students and we all get along. They deserve all the accolades and the praise that they get.”
Senior center David Campbell led the way for the top-ranked Cardinals (22-1) with a game-high 29 points while senior guard Spencer Braithwaite contributed 19 points.
“I knew I had to catch it off the rebound, go right up and throw it right up,” Campbell said.
DORCHESTER — Four quarters wasn’t enough to decide this one as top-seeded Madison Park gave up a 19-point halftime edge before holding on to defeat No. 4 Brockton on Tuesday night in the Division 1 South semifinals.
Senior center David Campbell collected a game-high 20 points along with 11 rebounds in the Cardinals 77-72 overtime victory at BC High — sending Madison Park to Friday night’s North sectional finals against Mansfield at TD Garden.
“I knew it had to come down to me, I had to hit my shots and layups,” said the 6-foot-5-inch senior with a big smile on his face. “First half I wasn’t into the game but I kept playing. Second half I stepped it up and started to hit some buckets.”
Madison Park (20-1) began overtime on a 10-0 run only to watch the Boxers responded with a 9-0 run of their own. Led by senior guard Kyle Houston’s clutch free throws the Boxer’s got within one, 73-72, with 41.6 seconds to play.
But Madison Park was also clutch from the line in the final moments, going 4-for-4 from the stripe as senior guard Tyler Tettus’ free throws put the Cardinals up 75-72 with 38.1 to play. Senior guard Kevin Stokes also knocked down a pair to ice the game with 10.1 remaining.
“We played like warriors,” MP coach Denis Wilson said. “I’m on top of cloud nine right now, I’m just overjoyed. … I’m so proud of my kids. We found a way to win, blood and guts, MP character, MP pride.”
Trailing 41-22 at the break, the Boxers (17-4) scratched and clawed their way back into the game. A pair of free throws by senior guard Leonardo Medina tied the game 61-61 with 48.5 seconds left. Two Madison Park turnovers on consecutive possessions gave Brockton a chance to win it but Medina’s pull up jumper rimmed out as time expired.
“These kids deserve to go to the Garden,” Wilson said. “This was a goal of ours and it started in March.”
Jamie Rosa is a junior football player at South Boston High. He can be reached at biglui14@gmail.com.
New Mission senior guard Nieshia Kelley was presented flowers and a certificate from coach Greg Berry after reaching 1,000 points on Thursday evening, during a first round game with Georgetown at English High School. Photo by Patrick E. O'Connor
By Patrick E. O’Connor
The reining Boston City League champs, New Mission High’s girls’ basketball team, had high hopes for advancing in the state tournament but the season ended with a two point loss to Georgetown on Thursday night, at English High.
Georgtown (7-14) defeated the Titans, 47-45, in the second round of the Division 4 North sectional.
The Titans got off to a slow start in the first period, trailing 13-4 but battled back in the second to break even with Georgetown at half time at 19-19.
Minutes into the second half, the game was stopped for a brief presentation for New Mission senior guard Nieshia Kelley as she reached 1,000 points. Coach Greg Berry presented her with flowers and a certificate.
Kelley finished with a team-high 17 points while Edna Cristo-John contributed 11 points for the Titans.
With seconds remaining in the contest, the Titans rallied to tie the score but ran out of time before Georgetown advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with Fenway on Saturday.
WATERTOWN — Only using five players on Wednesday night, South Boston’s boys’ basketball team upset defending champion Watertown High in the opening round of the Division 3 North bracket.
Losing three players to academic ineligibility recently, the No. 12-seeded Knights (11-10) were forced to play with a short bench consisting of just two players pulled up from the JV ranks.
“I go with the momentum, they were playing solid ball so there was no need to sub unless one of my players was in foul trouble,” Southie coach Hakim Johnson said after the 57-52 victory. “It was a team effort, Stevie [Weathers] did a good job of not giving [Watertown’s Marcus Coppola] too much space and Tyrell [Pugh] gave him some tough looks.”
The sharp-shooting Coppola walked the line between getting his teammates involved and taking over games for the fifth-seeded Raiders (13-8) this season. Watertown finally fell off that high wire act on Wednesday night as Coppola scored 10 points in the opening half before finishing with a game-high 28 points.
“I know how to take over the game like I did down the stretch there but you gotta get your teammates involved,” the junior guard said. “The offense was just stagnant the whole game.
“I was trying to get them involved early on to set the tone so they knew they just couldn’t focus in on me, which they did a lot. The whole game they were just focusing on me, not really worrying about what a couple other guys were doing.”
