By TYM BROWN
MELROSE — The Wakefield boys’ basketball team ended their four-game losing streak with a huge 48-43 victory in their visit to Melrose on Tuesday night. Throughout the game, the Warriors looked more cohesive defensively and were able to elevate their play on both ends of the court when it mattered most. The offensive effort was paced by sophomore Jack Millward who led the Warriors in scoring with 16 points while also pulling down 13 rebounds and adding 3 assists.
Millward got the scoring started with a 3-pointer from the left wing. This was a good early sign for Wakefield since they shot 4-of-36 from deep in their previous game against Wilmington and needed to improve in that aspect drastically in order to win this game.
Melrose senior Ben Perella matched Millward with a 3 of his own as the shot clock drained down. An over-commitment on the half-court press from Melrose gave senior captain Jackson McDermott (7 pts, 4 reb, 2 stl) a lane to the basket where he would draw and make a pair of free throws. McDermott had missed the previous two games for Wakefield and was welcomed back into the starting lineup to bring a mixture of quick pace and size that the Warriors were missing. A possession later, De’Ari Burton (12 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast) found Jackson Fitzpatrick (5 pts, 8 reb) on a textbook pick-and-roll to put the score at 7-3 with the Wakefield offense really rolling. Perella and Connor Brophy hit triples for Melrose as they were not shy to let it fly from deep. These shots, intermixed by Millward capitalizing in transition off a Burton steal, put the score at nine a piece. For the final two minutes of the first, neither team could strike from the field as they traded just a free throw to keep the game tied heading into quarter number two.
Junior Nolan Natale gave Melrose their first lead of the game with a layup, followed later by John Arens scoring off a Wakefield turnover after great passing set him up on the other end. After a pair of free throws from Millward, Melrose continued to pile on as Brophy hit from beyond the arc and the deficit was up to five for the Warriors. This sparked the visitors to make an immediate defensive adjustment to close out on all shooters aggressively and force Melrose to the basket. This change caused a four-minute scoring drought from the home team as the Warriors stormed back offensively.
McDermott defended a shot, got the board, and ran the full length of the floor for a bucket to start a 7-0 run from Wakefield. Then, Millward zipped a pass to Fitzpatrick as a lack of defense from Melrose led to another easy basket. Millward then found Burton alone in the left corner who hit his first shot of the game from deep to regain the lead.
Owen Mujalli briefly brought Melrose ahead again with a 3, but a beautiful baseline drive by Burton opened up a layup for Millward as the Warrior backcourt duo was taking over the game offensively. With time running out in the half, Wakefield could only hope this fire would keep burning in the second half. The first half ended with the score knotted at 23 and the Warriors looking very hopeful to snap their streak.
Senior Miles Nzui started out the third quarter hot for Melrose as he attacked the basket strong for back-to-back layups. Millward got a put-back on his own shot to get back in rhythm, but a turnover by Wakefield on the next possession would set up Nzui for another drive as he finished through a foul and converted the and-one. Burton squared up a triple in response, making it seem the Warriors could keep pace, but no basket would be scored by Wakefield for another three and a half minutes. Nzui took this time to get two more layups to go as he continuously diced up the defense in the paint. This stretched the Melrose lead to its highest at seven with a minute left in the quarter. Things looked grim for Wakefield, as it seemed they weren’t able to turn the tide when the opposition had momentum in their previous four games, but this time would be different.
Junior Matt Beaver fed senior captain Connor Mauriot in the right corner as the defense failed to close out, immediately followed by a timeout for the Warriors. Coming out of the break with poise and another defensive stop, McDermott faced up at the free throw line and made a beeline for an off-hand finish with just 13 seconds left in the quarter. Melrose lackadaisically inbounded the ball and attempted to pass it up the court, but senior Declan O’Callahan undercut the pass for the Warriors. The senior guard dove at the right edge of the basket, wrapping a pass around Nzui and into the hands of Burton who beat the buzzer and tied the game at 35 all heading into the final quarter.
This electric play sent the Wakefield bench onto the court as they mobbed O’Callahan to pick him up off the floor after an incredible effort to give his team a lot of momentum heading into the last eight minutes of the game.
The fourth quarter began with a bang as Millward spotted up from deep to give the Warriors their first lead since just before halftime. Arens retied the game by hitting a step-back triple and Nzui followed with a right-handed reverse lay to put Melrose up by two.
Mauriot fired back in a big way as the Melrose defense forgot about him again in the corner as his second triple of the game found the bottom of the net to reclaim the lead. The Warriors were excellent as a defensive unit in this quarter as they continued to delete the airspace of Melrose’s shooters, allowing only a free throw to go through for the next three minutes. A free throw from Fitzpatrick kept the Wakefield lead at one during this stretch as both offense struggled shooting-wise, but finally a vital basket came.
Burton burst between two defenders and hit a huge left-handed floater to place the score at 44-41 in favor of the Warriors with just under two minutes left. Arens missed a game-tying attempt on the other end as Burton corralled the board with his team seeking a dagger shot to put it out of Melrose’s reach. McDermott got the opportunity as he went to the basket, but missed, got his own rebound, and had it ripped away in an instant. Ben Perella ran ahead of the pack as he took his free two points in transition, cutting the lead to one for Wakefield.
The Warriors drained the shot clock down to 12 on the next possession as Burton handled at the top of the key. The star senior guard blew past Arens with a hesitation move and charged into the paint, gracefully looping a layup with his left hand that gave a kiss to the glass as it fell through the nylon for the most clutch bucket of the night.
With 30 seconds left, Melrose wanted to tie the game with a 3 so the Warriors protected the perimeter at all costs. Brophy took a drive at McDermott and stopped just outside the paint in an attempt to kick out to a shooter, but McDermott poked it away and got the steal to seal it. Two free throws from Mauriot iced the game for Wakefield as they came away victorious for the first time in five games.
“I’m just proud of how hard these guys competed,” said head coach Colin Halpin after this win. “Getting down by 4 at the end of the third quarter and we got down in the fourth quarter. They just kept coming with resiliency to win, it was amazing to watch.”
That mental toughness shown by the Warriors in this one is something they’ll want to continue with as they look to start a revenge tour in the final stretch of this season.
Half of the remaining games for Wakefield are against teams that they’ve lost to previously this season. The first of these will be tonight at 6:30 p.m. when the Warriors visit Salem. Then the Warriors will go to Stoneham at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Back-to-backs are not common in high school basketball, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Warriors perform with such a rigorous schedule.