BLACKSTONE VALLEY MEMORIES

March 16

1954 Pawtucket West placed 6-foot-1 Alex Roberts, 6-0

Ken Jackson and 5-9 Andy Boyle on the Pawtucket Times’ All-Blackstone Valley Second Team along with 6-1 Bob Bisset of Cumberland and Sacred Heart Academy’s 6-1 Jerry Maynard. Roberts, the only junior of the group, was a tower of strength on the boards, Jackson did most of his scoring on the inside and Boyle, a fierce competitor, had tremendous drive and was especially bothersome on defense. Bisset, a rugged lad, was the top scorer in Class C piling up points inside and outside, while Maynard was a defensive standout, a fine rebounder and was able to score 298 points in league play.

1964 Tolman battled back from a seven-point halftime

deficit to notch the score at 57-57, but the Malden High Golden Tornadoes of Massachusetts outscored the Tigers 9-2 in the final two minutes to produce a 66-59 victory and put an end to the locals’ 24-game-winning streak and dreams of a New England schoolboy championship before 6,447 fans at the Boston Garden. Frank Geiselman, the best rebounder in the semifinal tilt, had a team-high 17 points, Gerry Suggs canned 16 and Don Suggs, who had another bad game, added 11. Ragged ball handling and passing against the Tornadoes’ zone-pressing tactics cost the Tigers at least a dozen possessions.

1974 Chris Corrigan of Lincoln was the runaway leader among Blackstone Valley schoolboys capturing the scoring crown with a 25.8 points-per-game average. Rounding out the top 10 point-getters are Billy Lynch of Saint Raphael Academy (19.5 ppg), Cumberland’s Rich Lengieza (18.7), Doug Clary of Tolman (18.5), Central Falls’ Russ Standring (17.9), Warrior teammate Bob Matuszek (16.0), sophomore Tom Panichas of Lincoln (15.1), Pawtucket West’s Gary Grigas (14.3), Marc Sawyer of CF (14.1) and West’s John Otis finished 10th with a 13.8 mark.