By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD– On Friday, the Wakefield High boys’ hoop team was back in action as they hosted non-league opponent Salem.
The afternoon matchup was headlined by a pair of freshman guards from Salem who stole the show as the Witches whipped the Warriors to a 67-54 defeat. Salem’s Jordan Maxon went off for 30 points and his fellow first year backcourt mate Elian Rodriguez scored 22 to send the Warriors home with the loss.
“Those two guys were outstanding the whole game, I thought they were the two best players on the court,” Warriors’ head coach Colin Halpin said following the loss. “You gotta tip your cap to those two freshmen, they came in on the road in their second career high school game and they won the game for them.”
The game began in a frantic fashion, with both teams firing up some wild shots and throwing some errant passes before Warrior forward Matt Beaver had a putback to break the ice. On the subsequent possession, Salem turned the ball over again, despite Wakefield being unable to score the breakaway layup, the trailing players scrapped for the rebound before it got kicked out to Beaver at the 3-point line. The junior knocked down the open trey to give the Warriors a 5-0 lead, but then the floodgates would open up. Salem outscored Wakefield 21-5 the rest of the way.
“I thought we came out really sloppy in the first quarter,” Halpin admitted. “Against a team that plays as hard as Salem always does regardless of their personnel, you can’t spot them double-digit leads.”
Heading into the second quarter down 11, Wakefield needed a spark. Following a pair of Jack Millward free-throws however, Salem’s Maxon hit three straight 3-pointers and added a layup to go on an 11-0 run by himself in a little over a minute and a half, burying the Warriors under a 32-12 deficit.
Wakefield received the spark they needed to get the game close again, as the Warriors closed the first half on an 11-2 run of their own.
Jackson McDermott and Millward scored before De’Ari Burton hit a 3-pointer. Millward would score again and Burton put one in right before the halftime buzzer to send the Warriors into the break only down 13.
“We need to do a better job taking care of it, I gotta do a better job putting these guys in better positions to take care of it,” commented Halpin on his team’s less than ideal first half performance.
The Warriors came out flat to start the second half, losing in the 3rd quarter 14-9 and they went to the fourth trailing by 18 points 50-32.
When asked about his halftime adjustments coach Halpin said, “We just talked about getting back to playing Wakefield basketball. I thought we were kind of like a deer in the headlights to start the game. We talked about them pressuring us, I don’t think we were quite ready for the intensity of their pressure. We knew it was coming but maybe not to that extent.”
Halpin still liked the effort he saw from his guys.
“I’ll give my guys credit, I think we continued to fight throughout the game, even when we weren’t shooting it too well. I was happy with the defensive effort even down double digits. I thought we competed.”
Wakefield never gave up and continued to fight to get back into the game. In the 4th quarter the Warriors outscored the Witches 22-17, although it was too little, too late.
“We’ll learn from it and get better, it’s a tough loss but we’re lucky it’s early in the season and we can get better from it,” said Halpin.
The Warriors bounced back with a 59-56 victory over Belmont (4-2) last night at the Charbonneau Field House, improving to 4-1 on the season. A full story will appear at a later date.
Wakefield will host Stoneham (1-5) on Friday night at 7 p.m.