THE WARRIORS are the 2022-23 Middlesex League Champions. Wakefield is currently 16-2 and ranked 7th in Div. 2 with two non-league games remaining in the regular season. (WMHS Athletics Photo)
By TYM BROWN
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High boys’ basketball team got back in the win column on Valentine’s Day as they swept the season series against Watertown with a 56-46 victory.
De’Ari Burton(15 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast) was ecstatic about the win on Tuesday at the Charbonneau Field House, Wakefield’s last league game of the season.
“We knew we were gonna bounce back,” said the junior guard referencing Wakefield’s loss to Burlington last week which snapped a 12-game winning streak. “We needed that loss, it’s only gonna make us stronger as a team.”
This win was vital to support Wakefield’s hunt for a top seed in the playoffs as they currently hold the 7th seed in the MIAA Division 2 rankings.
This game opened slowly with both teams shooting inaccurately for the first two minutes. Ethan Margolis (17 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast, 5 stl) finally broke the stalemate with a free throw and a deep 3-pointer. Isaiah Etienne, a senior center for Watertown, then hit their first field goal with a turnaround shot off glass. Etienne had missed the previous matchup between the Warriors and Raiders and made an impact throughout the entire game rebounding on both ends of the floor.
Burton matched Etienne’s shot by creating for himself from the mid-range, giving the Warriors a four-point lead halfway through the first quarter. Watertown senior captain Ben Kullman unexpectedly pulled up two steps back from the three-point line and drained the shot, shocking the home Wakefield crowd. A steal and score by Watertown on the following possession gave them their first lead of the game.
Burton then responded with a corner triple to get momentum back on his side. The Warrior star guard fired a pass through multiple layers of Watertown defenders to find Jackson McDermott (4 pts, 5 reb) alone in the paint on the next possession, stretching the lead to four points once again.
Free throws from Mike Wilkinson (11 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl) gave Wakefield a 5-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
Wilkinson set off the scoring for the Warriors in the 2nd quarter with a wide-open triple created by a drive from Margolis that allured many Watertown defenders. Watertown continued to respond as Kullman finished strong inside and junior Jeffrey Herbin drew two free throws. Herbin was the only player to come off the bench and the only non-senior to get playing time for the Raiders. Herbin followed his free throws with a 3 and two layups to give himself 9 straight points to end the quarter. Margolis responded in between these shots with two triples of his own to keep the Wakefield lead at three points going into the half.
The Warriors opened up the third quarter with a dime from Margolis inside to John Porter (6 pts, 9 reb) for an easy layup. McDermott then hit Burton on a huge outlet pass to help his team gradually pull away from Watertown in the second half.
The offensive tear continued for the Warriors with a post-spin from Wilkinson and a fastbreak layup for McDermott just a minute later. The Raiders finally responded with a perimeter shot from Johnny Cacace after a four-minute scoring drought to cut the Watertown deficit to six.
Margolis hit a mid-range fade from a tough angle to keep the scoring barrage going, but Herbin hit a 3 to keep the run going for his team. A fastbreak layup off of a steal by Herbin brought the Raiders to within three points of the Warriors once again. Wakefield closed the scoring out in the 3rd with a layup from Porter to boost the lead back up to five. Porter hit three of his four shot attempts on the night as well as collecting nine rebounds, doing the dirty work in the paint as he has so well as a senior captain of this team all year.
The fourth quarter started with a huge 11-0 run from the Warriors that included two deep-range shots from Burton as well as one from Declan O’Callahan. Wakefield as a team hit eight of their 15 3-point attempts, shooting 53 percent from beyond the arc. This elite perimeter shooting was a huge reason that the Warriors were able to maintain a lead for the great majority of this game.
Watertown responded in a big way once again as Herbin and Kullman both hit deep 3’s to get the difference down to single digits. Quickly responding to this was Porter for the Warriors with another finish in the paint, followed by a steal and score from Margolis.
With just two minutes left, Wakefield was ahead by 10 points and there seemed to be no hope of a comeback for Watertown. Purposefully fouling gained no ground for the Raiders as the Warriors cruised to a 10-point win. The trio of Burton, Margolis and Wilkinson combined for 43 points, leading their team to a huge win once again.
With this win in the books, the Warriors moved with momentum into a Thursday night road matchup against Salem. A 67-41 win was led by the trio of Burton (17 pts), Margolis (16 pts), and Wilkinson (15 pts) who combined for 48 total points to deliver another big-time win as the team closes in on the end of the regular season. Wakefield will kick off February vacation week with a road trip to Canton on Monday, for one of their biggest challenges of the year against a Bulldog team ranked 17th in Div. 2.