Watertown Boys Basketball defeated Wilmington Tuesday night in the late game of a doubleheader inside the Victor J. Palladino Gymnasium at the Watertown Middle School. The final score on Senior Night was Watertown 59, Wilmington 55 in overtime. Watertown moves to 8-5 in the Middlesex League’s Freedom Division and tied for second place with Wilmington. Burlington is in first at 9-4.
Well, if high school basketball could always be this good! Tuesday night pitted two very good basketball teams in a rematch of a January 3rd game at Wilmington, which the Raiders lost in OT by 3. This was a great basketball game, back and forth and intense right from the opening tip-off. Through numerous lead changes, Watertown led by two after one quarter, and after a 15-15 second quarter went into the locker room ahead 32-30 at the half
Wilmington went cold in the third, while Watertown played a solid quarter and stretched the lead to ten. That’s when things went sideways.
Wilmington started trading three pointers for Watertown 2’s, and whittled the lead to 3. Then it got crazy. Senior Olivier Labossiere, who had 13 on the night, made a great steal at the defensive end, then drove the length of the court only to miss a layup. Wilmington couldn’t capitalize. Then Senior Aiden Didovic made a great move in a half-court set, drove to the basket and – yup, missed the layup. Wilmington couldn’t capitalize.
Then Junior Will Carty, off a time out and with time running out on the 35-second shot clock, airballed a five footer and Watertown turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation. Wilmington then got multiple chances to tie in the final 26 seconds, but missed them all yet somehow every time the miss went off Watertown and out of bounds. On Wilmington’s last possession, they put it in play with 4.5 left in regulation. In a scramble Wilmington guard Ryan Gray threw up a desperation three pointer and missed. The problem was Labossiere tried to grab him and foul before he had a chance to shoot, but fouled him in the act of shooting. This sent Gray to the foul line for three shots. Make them all and it was on to overtime. Yup- Gray made all three and it was knotted at 53 at the end of regulation.
Sophomore Michael Nshanian had a great first possession in OT, working his post up moves and scored the final two of his 14 on the night to put Watertown up by two, 55-53. Wilmington immediately scored on its first possession to tie it at 55. After a bunch of empty possessions for both squads, Carty got fouled and went to the line and made both. After a time out and the clock nearing the end of the four minute OT, Wilmington missed, Carty rebounded, Wilmington fouled him to stop the clock and Carty made two more clutch free throws to make it a four point game, and game over.
Watertown has won 8 of its last 10, and in the past five games Carty has played his best basketball of the season, scoring 26, 36, 25, 21 and 21 respectively. And to boot, Tuesday night Carty was 9 of 10 from the line in addition to filling up the stat sheet with rebounds and blocked shots! Watertown heads to Stoneham Friday night (2/7) and finishes league play next week at Wakefield (2/11) and Melrose (2/13). After a slow start to the season, Coach Harrington’s squad is playing its best basketball, with the D3 tournament right around the corner.
Boxscore
Wilmington 15 15 5 18 2 – 55
Watertown 17 15 13 8 6 – 59
Watertown: Carty 21, Nshanian 14, Labossiere 13, Didovic 6, Gebeyan 5
Watertown Girls Defeat Wilmington on Senior Night
Watertown defeated Wilmington Tuesday night in the early game of a doubleheader inside the Victor J. Palladino Gymnasium at the Watertown Middle School. The final score on Senior Night was Watertown 44, Wilmington 38. Watertown moves to 9-4 in the Middlesex League’s Freedom Division and in sole possession of second place, behind only Wakefield at 10-2.
Watertown played its first game this season without one of its starters, senior co-captain Victoria Dicker. Dicker injured her knee Friday night in the fourth quarter of a double overtime win over Burlington. Her injury has since been diagnosed as a torn ACL and she will undergo surgery before the end of February. Her excellent senior season and basketball career at WHS sadly comes to an end. Freshman Brooke Lambo started in her place.
Both teams struggled offensively, but it was a coming-out party of sorts for eighth grader Natalie Haley. Haley has seen the floor all season and is usually one of the first off the bench for Coach Tempesta, but Tuesday night Haley stepped up big from the outside. She made two huge threes in the second half, one in the fourth when Wilmington was on the cusp of taking the lead.
Watertown led much of the way against a team 3-11 and losers of six straight and 10 of their last 11, but the game remained close down the stretch. The Raiders got clutch play from seniors Adriana Williams, Caroline Andrade and Alina Garey. Along with Dicker, these four seniors have led the way all season. Andrade led all scorers with 11. Haley chipped in 10.
Watertown Girls Basketball has won three in a row and 5 of the last 6. They play at Stoneham Friday night and then their final two league games next week at Wakefield (2/11) and Melrose (2/13).
Boxscore
Wilmington 10 8 9 11 – 38
Watertown 14 11 8 11 – 44
Watertown: Andrade 11, Haley 10, Setouhi 7, Garey 6, Keuchkarian 5, Williams 3, Lambo 2