Southie presses on
Knights rising up the ranks
South Boston fell a game short of the postseason tournament last season, but that’s not going to be the case time this around.
The Knights surpassed their 2011-12 win total last week and enter the final
IN THE PAINT Dan Ventura
stretch of games with a 9-2 record. Second-year coach Andrea Higgins points to maturation as a key factor for the squad’s rise.
“We were a very young team last year,” Higgins said. “We’re still a pretty young team now, but we were playing freshmen and sophomores last year. They’ve worked hard to become a better team.”
Team is clearly the operative word in that statement. Sophomore swingman Destinee Morris leads the Warriors in scoring at 15 points a game, but she is far from the only weapon in the South Boston arsenal. Senior guard Marika Johnson, junior forward Taitannah Smith and junior guard Elaina Wright-McCarthy each average between 12-14 points a game.
“It’s great because teams just can’t play a box-and-one or a triangleagainst us,” said Higgins, who played her high school ball at Monsignor Ryan and later at Boston University. “It’s given us more confidence that we can score against almost any other team.”
Any team other than Fenway, perhaps. The defending Division 4 state champions have defeated South Boston twice, showing the Knights how far they still need to go become an elite team.
“I think we have the potential to become a good team in the future,” Higgins said. “The key is going to be how much these girls play in the offseason. They need to continue to play basketball and work at it.”
Perfect, not content
North Reading boys coach Joe Casey isn’t going to complain about a 12-0 start, especially after last season’s 7-13 campaign.
But he does not want his team to be merely satisfied with its results to date.
“We tell the kids every day in practice that no one remembers what you do the first eight weeks of the year as much as the last four or five,” Casey said. “But we’re fortunate in that we have nine seniors and they are a real tightknit group, a real good group.”
Good kids are nice, but good players are better.
Senior forward Dan Fitzgerald is back after missing almost the entirety of his junior year with a back injury and he’s averaging 10 points and eight rebounds a game. Further help arrived in the form of Fitzgerald’s cousin, John Mastacusa, a senior center who transferred back from Malden Catholic.
A Catholic Conference All-Star as a junior, Mastacusa leads the Hornets in scoring at 12.3 points per game and also averaging 8.5 rebounds and five blocked shots a game.
“John has the potential to be a good Division 3 player at the next level,” Casey said. “WPI and RPI have been calling about him.”
All-Cape Ann League point guard Tommy Hogan has done a nice job of getting the ball to the big guns, while senior forward Chris Capozzoli completes one of the premier frontcourts in Div. 3. Senior guard Carl Lipani, a football All-Scholastic, is the glue to the team.
“Carl is probably the most popular kid in the school — everyone loves him,” Casey said. “He does everything we ask on the court, he takes the other team’s best guard and does a great job.”
This Amber red hot
If junior guard Amber Filkins of the Wareham girls team challenges you to a game of H-O-R-S-E, you might want to think twice.
The 5-foot-7 sharpshooter has connected from 3-point range 48 times in 11 games (4.4 per games). The high-water mark was eight against Seekonk, a feat made more impressive by the fact Wilkins barely played in the second half because of the lopsided score.
“She’s the best pure shooter I’ve ever coached,” said Wareham coach David Brogioli. “Amber is a gym rat, she’s always in the gym working on her shooting. She just has a great shot.”
There has been one drawback to Filkins’ shooting prowess. At the end of each practice, Brogioli sends each of his 10 players to the foul line for two free throws to knock down the number of postpractice sprints from the standard of 20. A made free throw takes one off the total, while a swish drops the number by two.
“Every time with Amber, it’s a swish,” Brogioli said. “She’s killing me because I want the girls to do some running and she’s keeping it from happening.”
Classic matchups
As we head into the final month of the season, there will be no shortage of tournaments. One to keep an eye on is the IAABO Board 130 Classic at Central Catholic High School.
In just two years of existence, the tournament has given out more than $6,000 in scholarships and the hope is that this number will rise.
The boys side features the past three Div. 1 state champions in Central Catholic, St. John’s Prep and Springfield Central. Defending Div. 3 state champion Pentucket and a talented Central Catholic squad headline the girls’ bracket.
Action begins on Feb. 17 with Pentucket- Newton South at 2 p.m., followed by Central Catholic- Auburn. The boys take the floor at 5:30 p.m. with Lynn English- Springfield Central, followed by Central Catholic-St. John’s Prep.
Consolation games will be played Feb. 18 beginning at 2 p.m., leading up to the boys final at 7:15.