RED RAIDER seniors were honored at the start of their big win over Stoneham. From left: Rob Colozzo, capt. Zach Federico, James Kavanaugh, capt. Owen Dewey and Max Kirby. (Photo by Raj Das, edphotos.com)
3-game winning streak sends them to big show
By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE—Slow and steady won the race for the Melrose Red Raider basketball team, who punched its ticket to the Div. 2 State tournament last week by reaching 10 wins with a giant 74-42 victory over Stoneham on Senior Night on Feb. 11 at the Melrose Middle School gym in front of a jam-packed home crowd.
Melrose, flanked by a MHS pep band entertaining the crowd, has now reached 10-8 and with two games to go, they want to increase that record to create a favorable bracket when pairings are released later next week. Preliminary play is expected to begin around February 28.
According to Melrose head coach Dan Burns, the team came up big at the right time. “We’ve been waiting to see a game like this, where the offense is really an all-around effort. We would have liked to clinch earlier, but tonight, the crowd was great, the band too, and getting so many players on the floor was the perfect way to clinch a tournament spot.”
It was also Senior Night, which made the win all the more special. Sure enough their upperclassmen, captains Zach Federico and Owen Dewey, and Rob Colozzo and Max Kirby were a big part of the team’s win. “The seniors brought it,” says the coach. “This was a team-first kind of win we’ve been looking forward to, and in the last three games our seniors have all got the job done.”
Against Stoneham, Melrose saw lead scoring from Owen Dewey and Cam Lippie (both 15) and Zach Federico with 13. Melrose took early leads of 16-13 (end of one) and 29-23 at the half behind the work of Lippie, Federico and Dewey. Junior Ellis Davis was big in the third and helped Melrose extend their lead to larger amounts of 41-24 and 54-31 thanks to the work of Sage Jones and Rob Colozzo. Melrose hit a slew of three pointers in the final frame from Ellis Davis and Max Kirby while Miles Nzui was smooth on the foul line.
Says Burns, “There have been a lot of games for us that have come down to the final play or minute of the game. Against Stoneham, it was nice to have a big cushion of a lead to work with that allowed us to bring in the bench.” Melrose did that, benefitting from the work of underclassmen Johnny Arens, Jake Bird, Dan Nebiyu, Connor Brophy and Miles Nzui. The latter, Nzui, wowed the crowd with a reverse layup that had the bench, fans and coaching staff on their feet.
The Red Raiders have enjoyed a winning streak of three games after edging Wilmington 72-70 on Feb. 8 in a contest that came down to a technical against Wilmington that sent Melrose Owen Dewey to the line for three shots that preserved the win. It was a particularly strong effort from junior Ellis Davis and Cam Lippie who both had double doubles. Prior to that, Melrose beat Lynnfield, 70-51, in another high-scoring effort. Keeping Melrose’s point value high has been key, and in recent games, Federico is averaging about 14 points while Lippie is averaging about 18. All season, a talented Melrose has more than shown what they are capable of, so at times, their losses appear uncharacteristic.
“We’ve seen what we can do. For instance, we battled really close to Winchester, who is an excellent team,” says Burns. “When we play our best, we’re tough to beat. Other times we can play down to another level and we don’t want to do that. Sometimes it’s been a question of which [Melrose] team will show up. But, the last few efforts has shown the team we want to be. We’re playing better on the foul line and staying intense, with the ability to scale back and going zone when we need to.”
As for playoffs, there is literally no way of knowing what it may look like. With the MIAA eliminating sectional play, Melrose will play any team in Division 2 regardless of geographic. Their first round play could be out of Wakefield, the western part of the state or on Cape Cod.
Says the coach, “That’s an exciting and definitely an interesting twist for us. We’d love to earn a home game and we have a few chances to do that this week. We’re just happy that our season is continued.”