BPSsports

By William Johnson

EAST BOSTON — The East Boston boys’ basketball team held on to beat Lawrence High in the opening round of the Division 1 North bracket on Tuesday night.

Junior forward Dmitri Coronel collected a game-high 23 points in the sixth-seeded Jets’ 75-71 victory while junior forward Jeff Amazon and senior forward Elijah Chisholm added 11 points apiece.

In the final two minutes Lawrence junior guard Dawrin Pereyra hit two 3-pointers for the No. 11-seeded Lancers, the second of which dropped with 18.4 remaining in the game to cut Eastie’s lead, 71-68.

In the final moments of the game Lawrence sent Amazon to the free throw line twice, where he hit three shots. Lawrence sophomore guard Yadoris Arias knocked down a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds to play but it was too little too late.

Another intentional foul put Eastie senior guard Stanley Greene on the line with one second remaining. Greene split the pair to ice the game for the Jets (17-4).

East Boston led after each quarter.In a seven minute span during the first quarter, starting at the three minute mark, the Jets went on a 16-4 run before taking a 30-28 lead at the break.

Lawrence, which finishes the season 12-8, was led by Pereyra, who scored a team-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers.

Eastie advances to play No. 3 St. John’s Prep (19-2) on Friday on the road. St. John’s defeated Waltham, 70-55, on Tuesday night.

Roxbury-based blogger William Johnson pens the website crunkdub’shoops.blogspot.com. He can be reached at william_fire_basketball@yahoo.com

I’ll be teaching a free sportswriting seminar for high school students on Saturday at Grub St., Inc. downtown:

TEEN WRITING: Saturday, February 27th, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM, YAWP (Young Adult Writers Program) Are you – or do you know – a teen who likes to write poems, lyrics, stories, novels or screenplays? Come to YAWP, a free monthly teen writing workshop for Boston-area teens 12-17. YAWP provides writing exercises in small groups, feedback from working writers, pizza and inspiration. You provide the energy to write, share your work, and try new things. This month, we’re offering two YAWP sessions: one from 10 AM to 12 PM for Freshmen and Sophomores, and a second from 1 PM to 3 PM for Juniors and Seniors. You must sign up in advance by emailing info@grubstreet.org or calling Chip Cheek at 617.695.0075. See website to sign up for specific groups such as poetry, screenwriting, fiction, graphic novel, songwriting, etc. FREE, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

2010 Boys City Championship

The Globe has a good piece in today’s paper about English High basketball player Alex DeSouto. Check it out here.

By Justin A. Rice

ROXBURY— Setting a meet record in the 4 x 200-meter relay, Boston Latin School’s girls’ track team tore up the track at the Reggie Lewis Center on Saturday morning at the MIAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Senior Alexandra Williams, junior Emma Rice, senior Tamika Reid and senior Meisha Brooks clocked a time of 1 minute, 43.57 seconds in the relay, beating the previous record (1:44.23) set by Cambridge Rindge & Latin in 2006.

“We came in knowing we had the first [seeded] time but before you run every meet it’s about that meet, not the time you have so going into it we still had to push ourselves,” Rice said.  “Coming in we knew we had competition.”

Brooks and Rice also finished first and second in the 300-meter dash with times of 40.51 and 41.06 respectively as Boston Latin finished third in the team standings with 38 points, behind Newton North (46 points) and Wachusett Regional-Holden (38.3333).

“I told both of them just go out there and do what you know to do,” Latin coach Dacia Taylor said.  “They push each other.”

Keep reading →

By Justin A. Rice

ROXBURY — Madison Park busted New Mission’s near monopoly on city bragging rights on Friday night at Madison Park High.

After the Titans’ defeated J.E. Burke in the finals of the girls’ Boston City League Championships [see next entry for coverage], the New Mission boys’ were unable to keep their end of the bargain—forced to watch through bleary eyes as the Cardinals hoisted the trophy the Titans thought had their name on it.

Only one team was called Titans but it was truly a clash of top-ranked teams as Madison Park (16-1) held off New Mission’s furious comeback down the stretch to hold onto the the 66-59 victory.

“That’s the character of this team, they have the heart of lions and their warriors even though they’re Cardinals and they refuse to lose,” Madison Park coach Dennis Wilson said after  his second straight city title and fourth overall. “Everybody at some point in time did something to make this happen. That’s why this team is great.

“I want this for them; I’ll be here another 50 years so I don’t need anything.”

Top-ranked Madison Park controlled second-ranked New Mission (19-2) in the post, where senior center David Campbell scored a game-high 25 points, including 17 in the second-half, to earn tournament MVP honors.

“It really boosts us, we feel like we are the best,” said Campbell, whose No. 1 seeded team in the Division 1 South bracket will begin state tournament play on Wednesday at home against either Barnstable or Durfee.  “It’s going to be really good for us. We’re real happy, real happy.”

Like Wilson, New Mission coach Cory McCarthy came into the tournament saying he puts more emphasis on states and the city tournament is for player pride. But McCarthy left Madison Park’s gym on Friday night unsure if the loss would plague his team the remainder of the post season, even though the Division 4 team is unlikely to face anyone tougher than Madison Park when they begin their quest for their first state title on Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center. The No. 1-seeded team in the Division 4 North bracket will play the winner of Trinity Catholic and St. Mary’s.

“We probably won’t [face anybody better than MP] but guess what, every time you lose, well coached teams see how you lost so you have to improve. So we just have to improve and we will improve. That’s just the nature of our school. It’s the nature of our school and of our kids. We will improve and we will be in the state tournament.

“The city tournament is for our guys. The state tournament is for our school.”

Keep reading →

By Justin A. Rice

ROXBURY— Watching college basketball a few nights before the City of Boston League Championships, New Mission High girls basketball coach Greg Berry devised a scheme to shut down his former player, Khadijah Ellison.

Regarded as one of the best players in Eastern Mass., Ellison transferred from New Mission to the Burke  her sophomore season and also played AAU for Berry.

Ellison finished with 15 points and failed to  score a single point in the second quarter in the 59-32 loss on Friday night as New Mission (16-3) won its second straight city title.

“What it is a modified version of what I saw in a couple of college basketball games the other night,” Berry said of the defense used to beat Burke (14-5). “I said ‘Let’s try something.’ All it really was was a 3-2 [zone] but when she gets over half we sent the first person over and any time she gets into any corner you send another person and get someone else to beat you. And that’s what we wanted to do tonight, we wanted to make someone other than Khadijah beat us.”

But after one quarter it looked like his plan wasn’t working as Ellison netted all eight of Burke’s points. And while the game looked like it would be a shootout between Ellison and her friend, Niesha Kelley–who scored nine of New Mission’s 11 points in the opening quarter–Berry kept faith in his game plan.

“I was a little nervous,” Berry admitted. “Then I said ‘Wait a minute.’ The coaching staff got together and we said ‘We think this works. And I really thought it worked too so we stayed in it.

“It took a while to settle into it. What I did was I took one of my sophomores who normally doesn’t start [Melzina James]. She did a good job Wednesday against Latin Academy. I had her come in and do it again. I said this time it’s going to be different. You’re going to have help.”

Keep reading →

The state tournament hoop pairings are in:

The Burke girls (16-3) are seeded No. 2 in the Division 3 South bracket behind Coyle & Cassidy (17-3). New Mission girls (15-4) are seeded No. 3 in the Division 4 North bracket behind Pope John (17-3) and Whittier (16-4) while Fenway (14-5) is the No. 6 seed.

On the boys’ side Madison Park (17-1) collected the No. 1 seed in the Division 1 South bracket while Westie (12-6) is the No. 10 seed. New Mission (19-1) got the top seed in the Division 4 North bracket.

Check out all the pairings below  and to see the entire brackets visit the MIAA site.

Girls

Division 1 South

PRELIMINARY ROUND – Tuesday, Feb. 23

Madison Park at West Roxbury, 7 p.m.

Division 2 South

FIRST ROUND – Wednesday, Feb. 24

O’Bryant at Dighton-Rehoboth, 7 p.m.

Division 3 South

FIRST ROUND – Monday, Feb. 22

No. 15 Canton at No. 2 Burke, 7 p.m.

Division 2 North

FIRST ROUND – Monday, Feb. 22

No. 13 Brighton (9-9) at No. 4 Latin Academy (14-5), 7 p.m.

Division 4 North

FIRST ROUND – TBA

Georgetown-Maimonides winner at No. 3 New Mission

Shawsheen at No. 3 Fenway

Boys

Division 1 South

FIRST ROUND -TBA

Barnstable-Durfee winner at No. 1 Madison Park

No. 10 West Roxbury at Catholic Memorial

Division 2 South

FIRST ROUND – Wednesday, Feb. 24

No. 10 Boston English (13-8) at No. 7 Medfield (14-6), 7 p.m.

Division 3 South

PRELIMINARY ROUND – TBA

No. 17 O’Bryant (9-9) at No. 16 Dedham (10-10)

Division 1 North

FIRST ROUND – Tuesday, Feb. 23

No. 11 Lawrence (12-7) at No. 6 East Boston (16-4), 7 p.m.

No. 17 Methuen at No. 16 Charlestown (11-9), 7 p.m.

Division 2 North

FIRST ROUND – Tuesday, Feb. 23

No. 10 Brighton (12-8) at No. 7 Salem, 7 p.m.

Division 3 North

FIRST ROUND – Tuesday, Feb. 23

No. 12 South Boston (10-10) at No. 5 Watertown (13-7), 7 p.m.

Division 4 North

FIRST ROUND – Tuesday, Feb. 23

No. 12 Snowden (9-11) at No. 5 Maimonides (10-4), 7 p.m.

QUARTERFINALS – Saturday, Feb. 27

No. 9 St. Mary’s No. 8 Trinity Cath. winner at No. 1 New Mission (19-2), 7 p.m.

Dear readers:

Sorry to anyone coming to the site today looking for coverage from last night’s thrilling New Mission-East Boston game. I had to work my other job but come back late tonight and I will have coverage of the finals.

In the meantime here’s Patrick O’Connor’s slide show from last night to tide you over. Also, here’s the Herald’s story and the Globe’s.

If you come say hi at the press table tonight I’ll say sorry in person.

Enjoy the games and the site,

Justin