THE WAKEFIELD High boys’ basketball team celebrated their six seniors before beating rival Melrose 59-42 on Feb. 3 at the Charbonneau Field House for their 11th win in a row. Pictured with their families from left to right are seniors Ian Dixon, John Porter, Max Cusack, Ethan Margolis, Mike Wilkinson and Nathan Delgado. (Courtesy Photo)
By TYM BROWN
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield high boys’ basketball team captured their 11th straight win with a victory over archrival Melrose on Senior Night last Friday. This win improved the team’s record to 13-1 on the year as they currently hold the No. 5 spot in the MIAA Division 2 rankings.
Wakefield was led once again by senior captain Mike Wilkinson who reached the 20 point mark for the 9th time this season to win the final game he and his fellow seniors would ever play against Melrose.
Wilkinson (20 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast) kicked off the game with a deep 3-pointer from the left wing that sent the Wakefield crowd into a frenzy. Things quickly quieted down though as senior captain Ethan Margolis (11 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast) picked up two fouls on back-to-back defensive possessions that forced coach Colin Halpin to sub him out of the game just 46 seconds in.
De’Ari Burton (13 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) and Declan O’Callahan (8 pts, 2 stl) entered the game and made an immediate impact. The two juniors hit a 3 a piece to give the Warriors a 9-4 lead. O’Callahan got a steal after hitting his triple, the ball ended up in Burton’s hands who gave it away to Wilkinson to cap off an 8-0 run for the home team.
Nasir Monteiro responded by hitting a 3 of his own, making it clear that Melrose would not go away easily. The visitors tied the game with two minutes left in the 1st quarter.
Burton then delivered a much-needed bucket for the Warriors with a step-back midrange shot to get the offense back in rhythm. Senior captain John Porter got a steal on the next possession that lead to another 3 from his fellow senior captain Wilkinson to close out the scoring for the 1st quarter. The star forward opened up the second quarter by shredding multiple defenders to find an open shot from mid-range.
Margolis checked back in after sitting for 9 minutes of game time. The Warrior point guard immediately dished to junior Jackson McDermott (7 pts, 2 reb, 4 blk) who attacked the basket for two.
Melrose continued to attack the paint, but struggled to get any shots to go with McDermott down low. The junior forward racked up 4 blocks throughout the night, playing incredibly as the defensive anchor for the Warriors in the paint. Wakefield translated this strong defense into strong defense with a deep shot from Margolis. Melrose continued to struggle on offense, only being able to get a layup in the last two minutes of the first half. Taking advantage of this was O’Callahan, who hit a second 3-pointer to give him 8 points in the game and give his team a 10-point lead. Monteiro hit a smooth floater to bring Melrose within single digits at the break, but hope seemed to be slowly slipping away for the visiting squad.
Wakefield played strongly on both ends of the floor to start the third, making Melrose work for every shot they got up and playing great transition offense. McDermott had an incredible chase-down block that sent the shot out of bounds. He then blocked the following shot as well, which created a fast break where Burton hit Wilkinson perfectly in stride to put the Warriors up by double-digits once again.
Coach Halpin regarded McDermott highly, saying, “He’s all over the floor, he’s kind of a jack of all trades.”
The Warrior big man also had 7 points on efficient shooting to go along with his strong defensive effort, proving himself to be an important piece of this team on all sides of the ball. The last of these seven points were picked up with a smooth reverse lay-in to expand the lead to 14 points.
Melrose continued to fall behind, unable to stop the persistent offensive attack from Margolis, Burton and Wilkinson. The three continued to rack up points, expanding the Wakefield lead to 18 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
The Warriors cruised through the 4th, scoring 9 total points. Six of those came off tough layups from Burton and the other three from a deep ball by Wilkinson in front of the Wakefield crowd. With those six fourth quarter points, Burton became the game’s second leading scorer with 13 points.
Porter also put in a great effort, collecting two steals, dishing 3 assists and playing consistent, tough defense to help seal up this win. The senior captain left some thoughts on this being his last game ever facing Melrose.
“That’s huge, on Senior Night especially,” said Porter. “Winning for the boys just feels great.”
After wrapping up this huge win, Wakefield completed another season sweep, this time against Stoneham at home on Tuesday, 46-39, for their 12th consecutive win.
The Warriors will travel to Burlington tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Red Devils are the 2nd place team in the Middlesex League Freedom Division. Burlington has lost three in a row, which means the Warriors have unofficially won the Freedom crown. Wakefield has one more league game after the Burlington matchup and three non-league games to tune up for the D2 tourney.