When something ends, invariably something else begins. What ended on Thursday afternoon Feb. 20th at the Victor J. Palladino Gymnasium at the Watertown Middle School was the Boys Varsity Basketball’s regular season. What begins is hopefully a long run in the MIAA Div. 3 Tournament that gets under way next week.
The end of the regular season finds Coach Steve Harrington (31st season as HC!) and his squad in good stead. After a 2-3 start to the season, followed by going 2-2 in their next four (the last of those games a 25-point loss at Winchester) Watertown found their way and won nine of their last 10, including Wednesday’s 85-52 non-league win over Excel High School of South Boston. Watertown ends the season at 14-6, including a 10-6 record in the Middlesex League and a second place finish behind Burlington (12-4) in the Freedom Division. Excel plays in Div. 5 and ends their season 8-11 and out of the top 32 in the power rankings and not eligible for the tournament.
For any team, a 3 O’Clock game on Thursday of vacation week in a half-empty gymnasium can be problematic, but not for the Raiders. They came out running and sharing the ball exquisitely, to the tune of 20-12 lead after one quarter. Will Carty had 10 of those points, and his front-line partner-in-crime, sophomore Michael Nshanian, continued to show anyone who’s paying attention of his very varied offensive game. He had 7 in the quarter.
The second quarter was won by the offense, with Watertown outscoring Excel 22 to 19. For Excel, Jaeden Lafontant was the man. He had 16 in the quarter, and on top of the three threes in the first quarter, he had 25 at the half on the way to a game-high 38. The senior guard has plenty of game at the offensive end, but the rest of his game needs an upgrade if he’s going to make it in college. For Watertown, it was the Michael Nshanian show. A three-pointer, a traditional three-point play, and more added up to a 12-point quarter, 19 at the half and 30 by the time he went to the bench early in the fourth.
Watertown poured it on in the third, 27 to 8, and led after three 69-39. Highlights included a beautiful behind-the-back pass by senior Olivier Labossiere (10 points) that led to a layup by fellow senior Serge Gebeyan (8 points). A few minutes later Labossiere performed the steal-drive- athletic-layup-get-fouled-make-the-free-throw-for-a-three-point-play routine. Bravo!
The fourth quarter gave us the very loyal and team-oriented bench taking the floor. We saw Freshmen Michael Caterino, Josiah Bowen and Messiah Bowen (2 points) on the floor. Sophomores Shane Garey and Dayton Admirand each registered a basket. Junior Ben Teixeira and seniors Jathyn Fletcher, Christopher Essieh, Kaleb Mayhew and Joshua Moran played, as did senior Emilio Berndt, who wasted no time lining up a three-pointer from the left arc! Those seniors just mentioned, along with senior starters Labossiere, Didovic and Gebeyan, enjoyed a fine finish to their regular season high school career, and all should be proud of their contribution to Watertown basketball.
The end of something good is hard to accept, and for the seniors it’s now game to game before they have to hand back their uniform for the last time. But Watertown is playing good basketball and has visions of a long run. Free throw shooting and too many missed shots inside 5-feet of the basket are Watertown’s kryptonite, but if they can play a couple of clean games and execute, the next thing you know they’ll be playing in the round of 16 with a chance to get to the games that every high school athlete looks forward to at tournament time.
Watertown schedule will be revealed Saturday when the brackets are released. Watertown is sixth in the MIAA power rankings, which guarantees them one and possibly two home games as long as they win. May the new beginning have a happy ending!