Boston Amateur Basketball Club back in session
Basketball showcase kicks off
>> As the state crowned new high school hoops champions this weekend, it was the perfect time to fire up the 46th season of the Boston Amateur Basketball Club.
The BABC kickoff showcase at the Hale Family YMCA was a three-game sweep that featured BABC 11th graders taking on the NJCAA Region 21 All-Stars and the MIAA All-Seniors in a doubleheader, along with 10th graders taking on MIAA underclassmen.
In the opener, BABC 11th graders jumped to a 20-8 lead en route to a 100-79 victory as the team never trailed despite only six available players able to suit up.
A 59-33 halftime lead quickly evaporated as the NJCAA squad’s Tony Palavra (Quincy College) hit four of his five three-pointers. The Quincy Granite sophomore trio of Palavra, Derek Williams, and Tyler Victor cut the lead to 12 midway through the second half.
But long-time BABC leader and head coach Leo Papile calmed the waters.
“The 40-minute game had an effect,” said Papile. “We were happy with our effort and execution, so the execution was phenomenal.
We got more particular in our half court sets deeper into it and we made a couple of big shots.”
Duane Thompson (Putnam Science, CT; Randolph, MA) had 22 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists as the junior was joined by Putnam Science teammates Oswin Erhunmwunse (18 points; 11 rebounds) and Ben Ahmed (13 points; 11 rebounds).
Anthony Daley (St. George, RI) dropped a game-high 24 points with seven three-pointers for BABC.
In the sandwich game, the underclassmen from Eastern Mass High Schools kept things much closer for the first 20 minutes before running out of steam and size in an 82-59 loss.
Rodrigo Dos Santos scored all 13 of his points in the first half to keep things close for the BABC 10th graders as they held a slim 42-37 lead at halftime.
Hunter Matteson showcased his inside-out game with some nifty moves in the paint and hit a three-pointer for seven first-half points while Taunton’s Troy Santos hit two three-pointers.
Tyler Catoggio (Bridgewater-Raynham) and Peter Gellene (Catholic Memorial) both were excellent off the bench for BridgewaterRaynham
head coach Doug Alves as each finished with nine points.
“Definitely great opportunity for these guys as they have the potential to play at the college level. So it’s an opportunity to play against some Division 1, scholarship level guys, size, athleticism, to see how they measure up,” said Alves, who is in his ninth year with the Trojans.
But 6-foot-9 Collins Chidera (Putman Science) was too tough to handle inside and finished with a game-high 22 points with six rebounds and five assists. Ninth-grader Alex Egbuonu (Lawrence Academy) chipped in 13 points and five rebounds while eighthgrader T.J. Allen (St. Sebastian’s) added nine points from the point guard slot.
The BABC crew saved the best for last as things were dicey down the stretch. The MIAA All-Seniors made things interesting in the final five minutes, but eventually BABC came out on top with a 64-56 win.
Trailing 25-23, the AllSeniors went ice cold in the final 4:50 left in the first half as Daley polished off a 13-0 run with back-to-back three-pointers on threeof-four shooting from behind the arc. Daley’s sharp shooting along with Thompson
(16 points) gave BABC the 35-25 halftime lead. The BABC size and up-anddown offense gave the AllSeniors fits as the seniors had zero field goals in the final five-plus minutes of the first half.
Seniors’ head coach Matt Vincenzi (Pembroke) changed up the defensive tempo in the final minutes and it worked. The point guard tandem of Isiah Michel (Randolph), who led the team offensively with nine points, and Marius Canery (Lawrence) provided just enough pressure in the backcourt to cut the lead to four, 58-54, with 1:16 left, but the team just ran out of time.
“I wish we got after them a little bit earlier, but we were just adjusting to their size and figuring out their rotations and learning our kids’ strengths,” said Vincenzi. “Leo came up to me at the end and said, ‘No team has ever defended’ like we defended. So, hats off to the competitive nature of the kids we had.”
Papile praised his group’s endurance.
“We could see why all those (senior) kids were great high school players. The NBA All-Star game should take some notes because that was a real game out there,” added Papile. “We were just hanging on with fumes — we were on the ropes.
“We decided to play the college guys first because of the physicality, if we played those guys second, it would have also been a problem as they would have beat us up. So we got a pretty good look, nine days of training camp, come in, and get a couple of Ws”