Highlights From The Youth Basketball Hardwood

Youth girls’ and boys’ travel basketball results from this past week are as follows (scores not kept for the youngest age groups):

 

Girls

Grade 4

Orange Crush 17, Jolly Ranchers 12: For the Crush, Haley Harkins and Alexis Mason led the offense, while Marcella Daily and Erin Burns were aggressive on defense. For the Ranchers, Jordan Williams led the offense with Riley Mulligan and Shannon Cheh strong on defense

Crazy Bananas 23, Dark Sharks 13: For the Bananas, Julia Doyle and Cory Mangold led the offense, while Kira Smith and Katie McCabe were tough on defense. For the Sharks, Jackie Gouveia and Lauren Ankers led the offense, with Maggie Alexander and Alex Futterman strong on defense

H2O 19, Hot Tamales 11: For H2O, Catherine Shaw and Grace Nuzzo led the offense, with Rebecca Gavel and Julia Anderson tough on defense. For Tamales, Sarah Dowling and Vanessa Tucker led the offense, while Katie Bassett and Jenna Carvalho were strong on defense

Boys

Grade 2

Huskies: The team was led by solid offensive performances by Dillion Robinson, Keenan Murphy, Liam Murphy, and Joe Rios. Kyle Griffin, Jack Lydon, and Quinn McAndrew played great team defense, while Rohan Manusukhani, Sachin Manusukhani, and Nathan Bellagamba dominated the boards.

Celtics: Nolan Adis, Adam Bowditch, and Jimmy Gillen had great all-around games.

Warriors: Patrick Grover was superb at dribbling, Justin Engler has some great shooting, and Hunter Kirkman was tenacious on defense.

Striker: On offense, Luke Azzarito and Alexander Lloyd were standouts, while on defense it was William Crebbin and James Mok.

Wolverines: Offensive players of the week were Brandon Lutz and Bryce Benson. Defensive players of the week were Owen Meeker and Trevor Merrick

Orange Crush: Tucker Depuy led the way with 10 points, while Jared Dunn, James Tibolla, Sean Roche, and Luke Hannan finished off the offensive barrage. Andrew Tomasino, William Archiere, Keiran Coffey, Jack Street, and Jack Stenz held down the defensive side of the ball to lead the Orange Crush in an impressive final outing of the year

Wildcats: The Wildcats closed out a great season with some terrific individual efforts. Kyle Sullivan, Robert Hetzer, Max Hanson, Josh Taylor, Jack Kuligowsky, Ethan Braddock, and Kyle Good were fantastic once again with their defensive effort and unselfish play.

Grade 3

Slimers vs Red Heat: Slimers finished the season with an impressive showing led by Kyle Cascone, Brandon Giglio, Jonathan Nahmias, Luke Sansonetti, and Jack Swanson, while Jack Hannan, Chris Maturo, Derrick Lewis, and James Clifford applied defensive pressure and rebounding dominance the entire game. The Red Heat finished up the year in strong fashion. The offense was led by Danny Schreiber, Bobby Elston, Ryan Burns, Carter McCleary, and Jared Tod. The defense was anchored by Trevor Bottom, Logan Flynn, Andrew Gardner, Miles Martiska, and Luke Fischer.

Magic vs Ghostbusters: The Magic team had a sluggish start, but finished the game and the season strong. The defensive pressure was led by Mark Leonardo and Michael Sheraton. The offense spark was provided by Griffin Cross, Ayden Kasbarian, and Thomas Briscoe. The Ghostbusters finished their season strong. They were led offensively by Justin Kahn, James Doyle, and Brennan Mayer, while Garrett Norberg, David Plouffe, and Anthony Lynch were the defensive lynch-pins.

Golden Retrievers vs The Mighty Squirrels: The Mighty Squirrels ended the season strong this past weekend. With continued improvement all season, every player contributed to a great offensive/defensive effort on the hard wood. The entire team of Forrest Anderson, Jacob Clements, Liam Creeden, Reed Hammond, Bryan Ingwersen, Harvey Long, Harry Lucas, Timmy McCarthy, Ben Nowacki, James Schumacher, and Alex Wong had a strong season. For the Golden Retrievers, Nick Accousti and Garret Mandarano led all scoring with 10 and six points respectively. Gabe Stewart was a passing wizard, while Nick Cappelli was a force inside. Thomas Usher played a solid all-around game.

Grade 4

Fire Dragons 22, Wildcats 15: Aidan Ford and Adam Wolff combined for 18 points for the Fire Dragons. Connor Dinallo had three assists while Jack Ciaramello had four steals and Christian Lestik had seven rebounds. Marc Carlson had six points for the Wildcats while Greg Brissette had three assists, Tristan Crone led the defense with four steals and Jacob Duffy had six boards.

Hotshots 25, Thrill 16: Hotshots were led by Liam Deakin and Evan Eggleston who each had eight points. Cole Dimirjian had four assists while Matt Sadowski had three steals and Ryan Williams had six rebounds. Joshua Dunn had six points for the Thrill. Wyatt Moyer had three assists, Ryan Patrick had five steals, and Grant Moxham played an outstanding defensive game.

Huskies 50 Skyhawks 30: For the Huskies, Andrew DeLuca had 16 points and Adam Farley scored 13. Cameron Macdonald had four assists, Tom Fitzgerald led the defense and Alex Street had seven rebounds. For the Sky Hawks Matt Principi and Thomas Skrelja each had six points, while Sterling Radasci had four assists, Jackson Dooley had five steals, and EJ Santayana pulled down nine rebounds.

Panthers 37, Dark Knights 26: The Panthers were led on offense by Silas Decker with 20 points and Eugene Citrano threw in 10. Justin Woodward had four assists, Rick Mariani had five steals and Christian Adam had six rebounds. For the Knights, Dyan Champagne and Chris Daubert combined for 16 points. Jack Carello had five steals, Doug Carriero had fourassists, and Tom Coppinger had six rebounds.

Bullsharks 21, Dark Knights 20: For the Bullsharks, James Heran and Riley Burns each had fourpoints while Michael Ather had three assists, Ian Klepacki had five steals and John Finnegan had seven rebounds. For the Knights Dyan Champagne and Cameron Champagne combined for 15 points. Owen Rahr had five steals, Ben Terry had fourassists and Kevin Reiss had six rebounds.

Grade 5

Lightning 30, Blues Brothers 16: In a hotly contested rematch from the nail-biting regular season finale a week ago the Lightning and the Blues Brothers squared off again in the fifth grade quarterfinals. Picking up where they left off seven days prior, the first three quarters were extremely tight, the electric yellow squad managing a mere four-point edge; but a 16-4 fourth quarter run zapped the bolts into the semifinals. The late surge for the Lightning was led by Steven Moccio’s four fourth-quarter assists (four points, three steals, five assists total) and R.H. Clark’s six fourth-quarter points (nine points, two boards, three steals total). But as usual it was a strong Lightning team effort that led them to victory. Philip Coffey, Joey Conrod, and Bradley Wisemen were shocking on defense, combining for seven steals and six rebounds. Kevin Arther and Jacob Anastasi played major roles on offense combining for 13 Lightning points; and last but certainly not least, Michael Liberante and Matthew Frazetta had very strong games with a bucket each, and a combined seven boards.

The Blues Brothers kept the game very close going into the fourth quarter — only down by 4; 14-10. But Lightning bolts started landing everywhere and often and before anyone knew it the score was 28-12. The Brothers actually played their best team basketball of the season and it showed at the scoring table. Peter Clifford, the teams leading scorer, led a slew of players to the table with fourpoints, two rebounds and three steals. Offensive player of the game Robert Lombardo had two points and fourrebounds. Defensive player of the game Will Huegi had two points and five steals. Bryan Morrissey, Willie Whitlock, Nicholas Lametto (a 12-foot jumper) and Bradely Capeci also scored a pair of points. Lametto also had three steals and Whitlock added two rebounds. Nicolas Lombardo had two rebounds as well. Ben Marini played aggressive defense and got into early foul trouble so had to be careful late in the game for fear of getting fouled out. Thomas Stanczyk had two assists.

March Madness 34, Blue Devils 14:, With a balanced offensive attack led by Connery Mayer (12 points), Elliott Bennett (six), Nick Venezia (six), and Jordan Klein (six). Robert Hutchins, Chad Azzaritto, Chris Anesi, Taylor Koonz, and Patrick Godino spearheaded a tremendous defensive effort. The Blue Devils offense gave it everything they had, Alex Dunleavy had six points, Matthew Krasnickas has fourpoints, Evan Kohlsaat with two points and Nick Lansing with two points. Defensively Noah LaFerriere, Jack Palermo, and Will LeMay pounded the boards, while Justin Gillespie and Ryan Norton provided assists and several steals.

Grade 6

Town Quarterfinals

Huskies 47 vs Hurricanes 40 (OT): This game had it all, fast paced offense and stingy defense by both teams. It had the kind of drama that one expects from a playoff game. Tied at 36 all going into overtime, it was the Huskies outlasting the Hurricanes to advance to the Final Four March 20 against the Celtics. Declan Sullivan had a big game for the Huskies with a season high 19 points; Gordon Walsh added eight points. Nick Bourgeois led the team with six assists. Stewart, Ross, Flint, Weber, Fletcher, Turk, Delrossi, and Elliott each provided the defense and rebounds support to help secure a Huskies’ win. The Hurricanes led a balanced offensive attack with James Accousti, Colin Patrick, and Sam Duffy each scoring eight points. Matt Meyers led the team with five assists. S. McCarthy, Solano, Cryder, Draper, Masser and Anderson helped keep this game close with speed on defense throughout the game.

Wolfpack 41 vs Magic 28: Both offenses struggled early but the Wolfpack found their rhythm in the second half of the first period and never looked back. Sam Czel scored 11 points to lead his team, with Michael O’Keefe and Bobby Katrinak each adding six points. Nick Rohrbacher led the team with five assists. D. McCarthy, Drap, Kistner, Buck, Kudlak and Ingwersen each put up points and provided shut-down defense against a tough Magic team. Nick Samuelson led the Magic with nine points and Timmy LeBlanc added another seven points. Matt Davis led the team with six assists. Genovese, Donaher, Booker, Ladestro, Wessel, and Winans had their hands full on defense, but worked tirelessly to try and keep their team in it until the final whistle. The Wolfpack will play the Thunder in the Final Four March 20.

Grade 6

Travel Playoffs

Waterbury 44, Newtown Gold 39: The Gold Hawks FCBL playoff run came to an end Saturday in Darien. Newtown hit five three-pointers to offset a difficult day in the paint. The game was close throughout, with Newtown down 10-9 after one, leading 23-20 at the half, and ahead 29-28 after three. Trailing 36-31 midway through the fourth, the Hawks went on an 8-0 run capped by back-to-back break-away layups (off of steals) by James Frazzetta and Tim VanderHave. Waterbury responded with two baskets for a 40-39 lead with a minute remaining. After a couple of good looks just rimmed out, Waterbury went into a stall that caused Newtown to foul with 30 seconds to go. Waterbury scored the rest of its points from the foul line. For the game, Matt Elias (two three-pointers) and Matt Maturo (nine offensive rebounds) each scored eight points. Kieran Lynch (three-pointer) did a great job handling the ball and scored five points. Geoff Santore hit a three and totaled five points. Austin LeBlanc played aggressive defense and made a three-pointer. Mason Melillo, Ryan Shaw, and Alex Gerbo each had a basket, rebounded well, and blocked several shots.

 

Grades 7–8

Playoffs

Eagles 44, Huskies 31: For the Eagles, Julian Dunn was the high scorer with 25 points. Zach Bergeron was the assist leader and Sean Kemsley the defensive star. For the Huskies, Michael Cirone was the high scorer with 11 points. Owen Gaston was the assist leader, Chris Carroll the defensive star and Cameron Patrick the rebound leader.

Thunder 42, Jazz 36: Nick Lottrecchiano scored 21 to lead The Thunder to victory. The Thunder used a full court trapping defense to force many turnovers. For the Jazz, Dustin Raftery was the assist leader and Harry DePuy the defensive star. Otto Kerler and Daniel Hamula combined for 20 points.

Cavs 51, Heat 30: For the Cavs, Andrew Tarantino was the high scorer with 17 points. William Swain was the assist leader, Chris Horkachuck the defensive star and Graham Hubbert the rebound leader. Matt Wood contributed 10 and Nick Norberg added 12 for the win. For Heat, Jack Lago was the high scorer with 16 points. Kyle McGrath the defensive star and Brad Kretz the rebound leader.

Bricklayers 43, Nuggets 33: For the Bricklayers, Patrick Afriyie was the high scorer with 17 points. Jaret DeVellis was the assist leader, Kaustav Mitra the defensive star and Andrew King the rebound leader. Connor Miller was very energetic on defense. For the Nuggets, Daniel Winn, and Andrew Cragin were the high scorers with 10 and 9 points, respectively. Matt Janco was the assist leader, Griffin Davis the defensive star and Harry Duffy the rebound leader. The Nuggets played a tough fought game and kept it close through the fourth quarter. Carl Whippie also contributed with six points, fourrebounds and two blocks.