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Varsity Team 2003-2004
Alvin Abreu, Grng Angoy, Doug Mullin, Jose Quintana, Alberto Rodriguez, Liandro Rodriguez,
Steve Ramos, Vinc Spence, Ben Tranfaglia, Cetan Tyler, Jeff Watson
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East Boston Eliminates
Classical in Semifinals
By Jonathan Weiner,
The Daily Item of Lynn Thursday,
March 4, 2004
( Photos at end of article )
CHELSEA
-- Turnovers are great if you're running a bakery, but not if you're running a
high school basketball offense.
The Lynn Classical boys hoopsters committed just eight in the second half (19 in
the first), but several of them came in a crucial stage at different stages
through the half.
As a result, the fourth-seeded Rams fell to top seed East Boston, 65-59 in
semifinal action in the Division 2 North tourney on Wednesday. The Jets (20-2)
will take on second seed Salem for the title on Saturday afternoon at Tsongas
Arena in Lowell.
Classical had been down at the half, 37-27, but battled back strong. The
Rams were able to whittle the deficit to 48-45 behind a putback by center Grng
Angoy (double-double: 22 points and 19 boards). Yet while the Rams were quite
fortunate on the defensive end (East Boston missed a variety of shots, with no
second chances), Classical wasn't as lucky offensively.
Guard Jose Quintana (11 points) stepped on the baseline during one possession,
while passes went out of bounds. While both teams combined to go scoreless for
3:24, the Rams missed out on a chance to do some damage while the Jets were
fizzling. "We had three (turnovers) inside of two minutes during that
time," stated Classical coach Tom Grassa, who saw his team go 17-5.
"We were only down by three, but those turnovers were crucial. Yet
the Rams not only tied the game, but took the lead for the first time since a
22-17 advantage midway through the first half. Jeff Watson (nine points on a
trio of threes) ended the scoreless frenzy by both clubs by drilling a three to
even the score at 48, and shortly after, teammate Ben Tranfaglia netted his only
bucket on a rebound of an Angoy miss with 6:40 remaining.
The score was tied at 52 with 5:35 left before East Boston went on a final tear.
Forward Jamal Judge hit a short jumper to put Eastie back on top, and teammate
Kenny Heyward (23 points) stole an inbounds pass and went in for the basket to
give the Jets a 56-52 cushion.
Angoy grabbed a teammate's miss and put it through the hoop to bring the
Rams back to 56-54, yet another Heyward hoop brought the lead to 58-54 with just
three minutes remaining.
Angoy had a chance to bring the Rams even closer seconds later, but he missed a
pair of free throws. Eastie netted baskets by forward Lavell Bruton and Heyward,
and though Watson connected on another three-pointer with 48 seconds to go,
Heyward (two freebies) and teammate Westley Perryman (one) put the game out of
reach.
"We really didn't play our best game," stated first-year East Boston
coach David Siggers, who played against Classical several times for Marblehead
High prior to his 1982 graduation. "I thought our pressure gave them fits
in the second half, and that was the key to the game. I told our guys at the
half that Classical is a great team, and that they would fight and scrap, and
that's what they did. But Kenny (Heyward) played great for us down the stretch.
We put him in with six minutes left, told him not to foul and to box out, and he
did that very well. The momentum changed."
Both squads battled through the first half, with a three-pointer by
Quintana giving the Rams a 13-10 edge midway through the stanza.
Bruton brought the Jets to within 13-12, but an Angoy bucket brought the lead to
15-12.Perryman evened the score at 15 on a three of his own at the midway point,
yet the Rams were awarded a pair of technical shots after one of the East Boston
players was listed in the scorebook wearing the wrong number. Quintana hit both
shots, and while Heyward tied the game moments later on a short jumper, the Rams
extended their lead to 22-17 on a layup by Angoy and a three by Vince Spence
with 6:49 remaining.
Unfortunately for Classical, Angoy picked up his second foul soon after, and was
taken out by Grassa. The Jets took advantage, rolling out a 20-5 span through
the rest of the half.
"During that big run of theirs, we didn't have Grng's presence,"
Grassa said. "He had such a strong game for us (11 offensive boards, and
eight defensively). All season long, we averaged 50 or more rebounds a game, and
tonight was the first time all season that we played someone that had more
strength and power in the paint."
All photographs for this article taken by Rick Myette of LCHS
A tough defensive game
` 
Smiling Faces in the crowd
An even tougher defense on this day True fans
Coach Grassa discusses the situation Grng does his thing
Half-time score...
Go to Page Two - Not Ready Yet
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Eastie Survives Scare
By Jamie Pote , The Boston
Herald, Thursday, March 4, 2004
With
longtime rival Charlestown no longer in the postseason picture, it would have
been easy for East Boston to look ahead to Saturday's sectional final.
Then when the Jets wound up in a tie game with Lynn
Classical with five minutes to go in last night's Division 2 North semifinal, it
was easy to focus on the task at hand.
In the final five minutes, East Boston outscored Lynn Classical by a 13-7 margin
and also caused three critical turnovers in the final two minutes. That was
enough to push the top-seeded Jets to a 65-59 victory over the No. 4 Rams at
Chelsea High.
With the win, Eastie (20-2) will play Salem for the sectional championship
Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Tsongas Arena in Lowell.
East Boston junior Kenny Heyward, who was called for a technical foul in
the first half for taunting, emerged in the second half. Heyward scored 15 of
his 23 points after the break, while adding five big rebounds.
``Kenny was in foul trouble and with six minutes left in the game he told me
that he wouldn't get anymore,'' Eastie coach David Siggers said. ``I told him to
just leave everything out on the floor and he did. He's our workhorse.''
Eastie ended the first half with
a 10-point lead despite being out-rebounded by a 21-5 margin. After closing the
half out on a 20-5 run, Eastie ran into trouble in the second half as Lynn
Classical's Grng Angoy (20 points, 13 rebounds) was eating up the glass and
scoring on all kinds of put-backs. After he scored a basket on a great pass from
Jose Flintons (11 points), cutting the lead to three, teammate Jeff Watson (nine
points on three treys) drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie the
game up at 48 with 7:36 to go. East Boston then turned to Heyward,
who scored three field goals and added two big free throws in the final 4:45 to
lead Eastie to its second straight sectional final appearance.
``I think in a nutshell the turnovers cost us,'' said Lynn Classical coach
Tom Grassa, whose team finished 17-5. ``We had 19 in the first half and although
we did a much better job handling their pressure in the second half, we had just
eight turnovers. But three of them came in the final two minutes when we were
within a bucket. We had a crucial turnover and they turned it into a basket,
which hurt us.
``(East Boston's) a terrific ball club. That was the first time we faced a team
with this much strength and power in the paint.'' Jamal Judge
(14 points) and Westley Perryman (11) also were in double figures for Eastie.
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By By BEN LARSEN Staff writer, Salem Evening News Monday, 3/1/04
Danvers High has been in the habit of winning in dramatic fashion lately. The Falcons made another late charge last night against Northeastern Conference rival Lynn Classical, but this time they fell a little short in the Division 2 North Tournament.
Trailing by as many as 15 points in the opening half, Danvers whittled the lead to three in the second half on several occasions, but Lynn Classical was able to hold off the Falcons, 57-52. Lynn Classical advances to play East Boston, an 84-57 winner over Lincoln-Sudbury last night, in the semifinals Wednesday night at Chelsea.
Danvers sophomore P.J. Sherry (16 points to lead the team) drained a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to get his team within 53-49, and then teammate Dan Powers followed up with another trifecta to slice it to 55-52 with nine seconds remaining, but Lynn Classical's Jose Quintana made both ends of a one-and-one free throw situation to deny the Falcons another chance at a miraculous finish. Danvers had pulled out last-second wins over Gloucester (in the regular season finale) and Reading (a first round tourney game earlier this week) in its previous two games.
"It was an unbelievable game," said Danvers coach Mark Malley, whose team finished 11-11. "We just got down by too much in the first half."
Malley was referring to a 32-21 halftime deficit. However, Danvers got back into it with a flurry of 3-point baskets and by paying more attention to defense. Alberto Rodriguez led Lynn Classical with 20 points, but only six after intermission. Grng Angoy had a moderate point total (7) for the Rams but was all over the court, playing great defense and chasing down any loose ball.
"We changed things up in the second half and we tried to keep our poise," said Malley, referring to the Rams swarming defense and various configurations, which seemed to confuse Danves at times. But once the Falcons adjusted, they started creeping back into the game.
"We played strong. No one thought we'd be here," said Malley, alluding to the fact that the Falcons were a longshot to win even one tournament game. "Lynn Classical was more aggressive tonight than I thought they would be. But I told the guys to stick to (the game plan) and just let it happen."
John Gailey contributed 10 points for Danvers, including two 3-pointers. Sherry finished with four treys.
Lynn Classical was in command in the first half, grabbing a 32-21 lead, led by Alberto Rodriguez, who had 14 points. Rodriguez was unstoppable in the last six minutes of the half, scoring the Rams' last 12 points on jump shots and post-up plays.
Danvers hung in there as best it could as Sherry hit a pair of early 3-pointers to keep the Falcons in it before Lynn Classical went on a 15-0 run to push the score to 28-14. After Nick Hennessey interrupted the spree with a free throw for Danvers, the Rams scored the next basket to claim their largest lead of the half, 30-15.
J.B. MacDonald came off the bench to score five points to help Danvers stay within striking distance heading into the second half.
"We had some mismatch problems early on," said Malley. "They're a tough team, but we played just as tough taking them to the final seconds in a big game."
MIAA Playoff Photos
The Warmup
The Coaches
Amanda sings the National Anthem
The Pre-Game Rocking Huddle
Jump ball going our way
Manly Cheerleaders
Official Cheerleaders
An intense bench
Our Offense
Go to page 2 for more photos of the game
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Classical Statistics through 19 Games -
16 WINS 4 LOSSES !! ...as of 2/13/04
2 pt FGM 2 pt FG % 3 pt FGM 3 pt FG % FreeThrows FT% Avg.PPG
Alvin Abreau 20 / 46 43.5% 7 / 22 31.8% 15/ 22 68.2% 12.7
Grng Angoy 71 / 165 43% 1 / 1 100% 24 / 56 42.9% 9.9
Doug Mullin 2 / 4 50% 2 / 18 11.1% 4 / 8 50% 1.1
Jose Quintana 26 / 66 39.4% 18 / 61 29.5% 26 / 43 60.5% 6.9
Alberto Rodriguez 82 / 170 48.2% 2 / 9 22.2% 36 / 62 58.1% 10.8
Liandro Rodriguez 17 / 40 42.5% 1 / 3 33% 13 / 21 61.9% 2.9
Steve Ramos 13 / 30 43.3% 12 / 43 27.9% 27 / 41 65.9% 4.7
Vinc Spence 31 / 64 48.4% 14 / 42 33.3% 14 / 21 66.7% 7.2
Ben Tranfaglia 52 / 127 40.9% 2 / 6 33% 20 / 35 57.1% 6.8
Cetan Tyler 9 / 18 50% 1 / 2 50% 1 / 6 16.7% 1.4
Jeff Watson 25 / 68 39.3% 4 / 35 11.4% 17 / 36 47.2% 4.2
Salem Boys
Hoop Dodges Classical
By Jim Bianchine, The Daily Item of Lynn Thursday,
February 5, 2004
Classical Boys Hoop Thumps
Danvers
By Gordon Vincent / For The
Daily Item of Lynn Saturday, January 31, 2004
Classical boys hoop sinks
St. Mary's The microcosm of a 68-50 Rams win came when
Classical conducted a rebounding drill. When Ben Tranfaglia finally scored on a
putback on the team's seventh tip in the sequence, the Rams broke a tie and
never lost the lead.
A minute later, Grng Angoy scored on a tip-in, his
fourth successive on the play, the two scenarios describing perfectly the
difference between the teams in their second meeting of the season.
Overall, the Rams were dominating, to say the least,
overwhelming the Spartans off the boards, 60-29.
Angoy led arguably the most formidable frontline in
the Northeastern Conference with 24 rebounds. But the rangy 6-6 center is
flanked by a pair of sturdy forwards in Tranfaglia, who snared 13, and Alberto
Rodriguez, who grabbed 11.
"They killed us off the boards. They are such
an athletic team, and they are quick," said St. Mary's coach Mike O'Brien,
echoing the very same sentiment most opposing coaches have of late over the
Rams' rebounding prowess.
The win, a trifle easier than Classical's
59-56 victory over the Spartans earlier in the season, saw the Rams' record
improve to 9-3. The stubborn Spartans, who stayed in the game all the way
despite falling behind by a dozen points early, saw their mark fall to 6-6.
The Rams got a huge lift from Vince Spence, who led
all scorers with 19 points. Angoy had a double-double, with 18 points, and
Alberto Rodriguez added 12. The Spartans were led by sharpshooter Jeff McMath's
14, and 10 rebounds by pivot Ryan Hollingsworth.
The Spartans forgot to come in from the cold at the
outset as the Rams reeled off the game's first 12 points and held a 13-1 lead
with 9:45 remaining in the half despite lukewarm shooting.
The Spartans' inability to stretch the lead despite
opportunities came back to bite them. St. Mary's failed to score a field goal
for the first 6:30. But slowly, the Spartans started getting back into it,
thanks to a more concerted defensive effort and shooting by Kerlin Aubourg (12
points) and McMath, who drained treys to close to 17-12 with seven minutes left
in the half.
The rivalry was suddenly the way it was supposed to
be.
The Rams couldn't stand prosperity, and saw their
lead totally evaporate. Dan Shea drilled a jumper, and seconds later McMath
delivered a four-point play, draining a rainbow 3-pointer and the foul shot
after being hit on the release to close to 23-22. Tranfaglia's putback on the team's sixth try off the
backboard gave the Rams the lead for good, 35-33. Agnoy's tip-in, followed by
another offensive rebound putback by Spence, allowed the Rams to open a 43-35
lead as the Spartans suddenly had no substitute for the combination of the Rams'
size and athleticism.
Angoy scored on another offensive rebound and Spence
drilled a trey, and the Rams threatened to blow the game wide open, taking a
50-39 lead. But the Spartans weren't about to go quietly, as McMath quickly
answered with a high, arcing three-pointer.
But the Spartans' spirit was quickly broken when
Steve Ramos matched the trey for a 53-42 lead.Things got away from the Spartans
over the final five minutes, accounting for a margin not indicative of the
closeness of the game.
St. Mary's was all but finished when Angoy went up
for a two-handed slam. He missed it off the iron, but rebounded his own miss,
was fouled, and converted the three-point play for a 60-48 lead. It was the
start of an 11-2 spurt to close the game and punctuate the win."You can see
why they are 9-3. They are just very aggressive and play a perfect zone, and
they take everything away from you," said O'Brien.
Grassa remained pleased with the efforts of his
frontcourt, but loved the lift from Spence. "Vince is really starting to
step it up. He is getting higher minutes and good shooting
opportunities," said Grassa. The game was a change for both teams to play
tough competition to get tournament-ready, in this case without having to go
very far.
By Jim
Bianchine , The Daily Item of
Lynn Thursday,
January 22, 2004
The Lynn window
washers were at it again Wednesday. There was a short but meaningful stretch in
the second half of the spirited non-league, cross-town boys basketball game
between St. Mary's and Classical that summed things up.
Freshmen and J.V. Teams
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A Season To Remember (2002-2003)
A month after basketball season has ended, and it has finally sunk in. When I received my letterman jacket this week I realized that I would never play basketball for Lynn Classical again. It is over. I am sure that by now this has sunk in for all of my fellow seniors. However, this year’s roller coaster season of up and downs (and foul trouble) was definitely one to remember.
We started off the season relatively slow with a heartbreaking one-point loss to Swampscott and a defeat at the hands of Beverly. We bounced back winning five of our next seven games. This is where we reached the highlight of our season with a great boost to our morale. In the next game we routed our cross-city rival English by 20 points at home in front of all of our fans. Shortly after we defeated Beverly in a rematch to split our games against them. Our next challenge was a valiant effort against St. Mary’s, a team that had overwhelmed us in the first match-up. Despite the effort, we lost another heartbreaker by one point. Unfortunately, the team did not play with the same intensity for the rest of the season.
The basketball team set out this year to do one thing above all. We wanted to improve our record and advance to the MIAA Division II North Tournament. This is exactly what we did. Our record improved by three wins this year, and we made the playoffs. To our dismay, we played Charleston in the first round and were unable to turn an upset. Not only were they two-time defending champions, they were the best team in the division once again this year, and went on to win the state title. Despite this, it was a great year. I think that I can speak for all the seniors in sending a special thanks to Coach Grassa, Coach Turner, and Coach Kebreau for four great years of basketball, and in wishing the best of luck to next year’s team.
2/26/03 - Our varsity team played against Charlestown in the MIAA Tournament. Seniors playing their last game included Jesse, Russell, Matt, Nak, Greg, Robert, and John. It took a lot of courage to face the State Champions for the past three years ( with two unbeaten seasons.) But our young men hustled and fought through the entire game even though finishing in second place for the evening.