By TYM BROWN
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High boys’ basketball team made their quick return to the win column against Belmont on Tuesday night. The Warriors narrowly secured the 59-56 victory on home court without much resistance until the final quarter of play.
The start of the game was fiery for Wakefield as sophomore Jack Millward struck a 3-pointer from straightaway to get the scoring started. Others followed suite as De’Ari Burton, Matt Beaver, Connor Mauriot, and Jackson McDermott all hit perimeter shots. These five triples in the first quarter were already more than the team had accumulated in the entirety of the previous game against Salem.
On the defensive end, the Warriors couldn’t have started the game off stronger, holding the Mauraders to just 36 percent shooting in the first with an immense defensive paint presence.
Belmont specifically went after Burton in the post, but the Warrior senior captain saw this coming.
“I watched it in film. Coach told me to play aggressive, take the charge if needed, but the ref was letting us play,” said Burton. The captain’s strong defense shut down Belmont’s main attack as they attempted to feed their senior captain Donovan Holway, but to no avail.
Wakefield led 20-10 at the end of the first eight minutes with dominance on both ends.
Millward opened up the second quarter with a tough mid-range jumper and then a transition layup after a steal by senior Declan O’Callahan to keep the offensive momentum flowing. Belmont still struggled to keep pace with Wakefield, having not found any consistency on offense. The Warrior offense continued their pace though as they continued to expand their lead, reaching a peak at 16 points of separation when Millward converted an and-one off of another steal by O’Callahan.
“It felt great.” said the sophomore guard about his return to form in this game. “I put up a great first half, got some shots going.”
Belmont changed the momentum to close out the second quarter, cutting the lead down to 11. A series of free throws and a coast-to-coast finish from Andre Chavushian that split the entire defense did the damage against Wakefield.
Belmont started the second half with an easy layup and a deep 3 from the left wing for Holway. This started a 9-1 run for the Marauders, bringing them within three points of the Warriors.
Senior captain Jackson McDermott stopped this run by dropping a dime to Millward cutting towards the basket, perfectly cutting up the full court pressure the visitors were bringing. Belmont then shied away from pressing, so Millward found his own way to the basket with a hesitation move, forcing a timeout as the Wakefield lead reopened to seven points.
Connor Mauriot later struck his second 3 of the game to put the lead back at double-digits. Burton responded to a Belmont bucket by delivering a seed to junior Jackson Fitzpatrick cutting into the paint, sticking the score at 47-37 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter was a one-man show for Andre Chavushian as he led Belmont with his slashing play-style. The Warriors started to get more careless on offense as turnovers piled up and Chavushian would capitalize on this by pushing ahead in transition. The Marauder guard got a nice assist and drew two fouls, a physical layup and a smooth fadeaway shot on succeeding possessions.
Wakefield was able to recuperate their offense as a dump pass from Burton to Fitzpatrick for an easy basket put the lead at eight points halfway through the final quarter. Chavushian chipped into the lead again at the two-minute mark with a tough rip-through shot in the paint that was followed a minute later with a spin across the lane and layup by Holway. With both baskets unanswered, the Wakefield lead stood at four points with 48 seconds left in the game.
To follow Holway’s basket, he snuck behind the back of Millward on the next possession to poke the ball free. Senior Jayden Arno picked up the loose ball, got fouled going to the hoop, and split his free throws attempts. On the impending inbound, the ball slipped out of Burton’s hands as Holway recovered and got fouled going for a layup. Holway hit both of his free throws, leaving the Warriors with just a 1-point lead.
The next inbound, there were no mistakes from Wakefield. The ball movement was impeccable as Burton, Fitzpatrick, McDermott and Beaver connected in that order to move the ball from one baseline to the other, finishing with an and-one for Beaver right under the basket. The potentially game-sealing free throw missed as Belmont rushed the ball into the frontcourt and took a timeout with 10 seconds left, trailing by three points.
The Marauders inbounded for the final play, using the full 10 seconds to set up Holway for the final shot. The senior captain set a down screen, then faded and came around another screen to find himself open at the top of the key, only to miss the game-tying shot.
This game came down to the wire for Wakefield, to a fault of their own according to coach Colin Halpin.
“I think we were a little bit sloppy towards the end of the game. We definitely have to get better in those situations,” said the Warriors’ head coach. “We need to be more sure of what we’re doing on the court, especially in the last five minutes when things might become a little hectic and teams try to trap you. When teams try to speed you up, you just need to slow down and be stronger with the ball.”
The art of sealing a game is definitely something the Warriors will have to perfect throughout this season and is sure to come as this team binds together over time.
The Warriors will play the second game of a Friday night double-header against Stoneham tonight at 7 p.m. following the girls’ game at 5:30 p.m. The Spartans are 1-5 to begin their season and are looking at one of the toughest opponents on their schedule in Wakefield.