Senior tandem stings
Manchester Essex ride Furse, Chareas to 10-0
When they were first paired together in the Cape Ann Youth Basketball League, Cade Furse and Eddie Chareas had obvious chemistry.
Furse, a talented combo guard, could work around the big frame of Chareas on pick-androlls, giving defenses fits in youth games, and evolving into more complex sets in travel leagues during their middle school years.
The tandem has continued to hone that chemistry at the varsity level, and now Chareas stands a muscular 6 feet, 6 inches and Furse has a balanced repertoire of moves off the dribble, which has Manchester Essex (10-0) looking like a prime contender in Division 4.
“Everything flows through me and Eddie, but that doesn’t mean we shoot the ball every time,” said Furse, who broke 1,000 career points in the season opener against Cathedral.
“First, we see what defense they’re in, and we kind of play off that. We can establish a paint presence, and if they press me and Eddie, we have good enough shooters that we have the tools we need to still be successful.”
Now in his eighth year, Manchester Essex coach Tim St. Laurent recognized that his senior duo is the tip of a balanced spear that includes a supporting cast of shooters, defenders, and role players.
Sophomore John Chareas, Eddie’s younger brother, and junior Ben Jacobsen are the perimeter shooters, and sophomore guard Jake Zschau has made a significant impact after transferring back home from St. John’s Prep.
Senior Preston Potter runs the offense and Milo Zeltzer is the consummate “glue guy,” who does a bit of everything on both ends.
After a successful fall season at quarterback, sophomore Zach Hurd came out for the basketball team and he’s tag-teaming with Zeltzer on the opposition’s top scorer. Hurd and Zeltzer limited Peabody’s 1,000-point scorer A.J. Forte to 4 points in a 65-38 win over the holiday break.
“We knew the Peabody game was going to be the test, because we went 15-0 in the Cape Ann last season, but lost a few of our nonleague games,” said St. Laurent, who began his 20-year career as a coach at Xaverian, then migrated to Gloucester, and was head coach at Rockport for eight seasons.
“The Cape Ann League is very important to us, but we want to make a deep run in the D4 tournament. That drives us every day when we talk about conditioning and attention to detail, and we want to see how we stack up.”
As sophomores, Furse and Chareas helped the Hornets reach the D4 quarterfinals as the
No. 12 seed. Last season, they went 17-3 and earned the No. 9 seed, but fell in a 50-47 heartbreaker at Cathedral in the second round.
Chareas broke his leg in 2021 and missed the tournament. Heading into his junior year, he was fixated on becoming the best basketball player he could be, so he didn’t return to his post as a two-way lineman on the football team.
Furse stopped playing baseball after his freshman year when he realized he might have a legitimate shot to play college hoops.
Now the best friends play AAU in the fall and spring when they’re not leading the varsity basketball team in the winter.
“We’ve always been hard on each other, and hold each other accountable,” Chareas said. “Whenever I would struggle, he helped me keep my head up. We’ve had a good two-man game, and could always run the pick-and-roll as far back as we can remember.”
When he was younger, Chareas would use his size to force his way to the basket for points and rebounds. Now he’s one of the team leaders in assists, and is a deft shot blocker with a high basketball IQ, per St. Laurent, which helps him stay out of foul trouble.
His father, Nick, played basketball at Fitchburg State, and his mother, Kara Mirak, played field hockey at Vermont. Averaging 11 points and 10.8 rebounds through 10 games, Eddie recently accepted a conditional appointment with the Coast Guard Academy, and likely will suit up for the basketball team after his obligatory post-graduate year with Naval Prep.
Furse leads the team at 23.7 points per game, with 25-plus points in most of their competitive wins. His father, Phil, a former football player at Harvard, coached him in youth and travel basketball leagues, and continues to support Furse’s quest to play college ball, which might begin with a post-graduate year.
In the meantime, the star guard is looking to lead Manchester Essex to a fifth Cape Ann crown in six seasons as one of the smaller schools in the league, and a potential state tournament run.
“It’s great that we’re showing big schools we can beat you no matter how matter players you got, how big your school is,” said Furse. “I guess it’s because we’ve been playing together for so long. Our youth league does a great job developing guys for the varsity level.”
Courtside chatter
R As the regular season reaches the halfway point, there are nine undefeated teams left in the state: Worcester North (11-0), Waltham (10-0), Norwell (10-0), Bourne (11-0), Manchester Essex (10-0), Maimonides (5-0), Duggan Academy (10-0), Old Colony (10-0), and Avon (10-0). Worcester North and Waltham are the only unbeatens in Division 1, there are no undefeated teams in Division 2, and Norwell is the last undefeated team left in Division 3 after Bourne defeated Somerset-Berkley on Tuesday.
R Hanover coach Nick Hannigan earned his 150th career victory in Wednesday’s 62-48 win over Silver Lake . . . North Andover held a pregame ceremony Friday for Zach Wolinski after the senior guard scored his 1,000th career point last Friday at Andover. The team also received a trophy prior to tip-off for winning the Commonwealth Motors Classic over Christmas break . . . Arlington took control of first place in the Middlesex Liberty with a 69-51 win over Woburn on Friday. Junior guard Lincoln Fudge scored 26 points and made four 3-pointers. Winchester is a half game back of the Spy Ponders after defeating Reading, 72-65, on Friday. The teams will meet next Tuesday . . . Abington has won six of seven since a 2-3 start. The Green Wave secured a pair of 20-point wins over Middleborough and Cohasset this week.