Wally Abraham

Classical boys hoop comes up short against New Mission

By Steve Krause / The Daily Item

BOSTON - The Lynn Classical boys basketball team looked as if it was primed for a massive upset Sunday.

But New Mission guard Darius Davis -- a player Rams coach Tom Grassa knows well -- would have none of it.

Davis sank two crucial three-pointers late in the fourth quarter to allow the Titans to eke out a 64-57 win and eliminate the Rams in the Division 2 North quarterfinals.

"I've coached Davis, along with (New Mission coach) Cory McCarthy in AAU," Grassa said. "He's calm, never turns the ball over, usually passes up the shot and gets others involved ... but when everyone else is covered, he'll take it.

"We overachieved," Grassa said. "New Mission beat Reading easily the other night, and Reading has some good personnel."

But Classical hung with New Mission basket for basket. Counting the number of lead changes could have made one dizzy. The score was tied (53-53) with only 2:25 to go in the game.

That it stayed so close had a lot to do with the Rams, who, collectively, stepped up. Nick Grassa led them in points with 20, and drained four three-pointers. Shaddai Pena got all 13 of his points in the first half, keeping Classical from losing sight of the second-seeded Titans.

Keith Nance, who took an errant elbow to the nose during pre-game warm-ups and was seen with a huge towel of ice on his face only 10 minutes before tip-off, scored 10, including a nice layup with 34 seconds left that brought his team to within three (60-57).

Josh Cheever, Wally Abraham and Eraldo Custodio held their own under the boards.

Classical came out in a tight 2-3 zone and took advantage of some early cold shooting by New Mission.

"I was impressed with that," McCarthy said. "There aren't too many people with the courage to play us in a 2-3, but that's Tommy. He does a great job."

Davis, who had 22 points along with teammate Samir McDaniels, got the first of his two threes with the score tied at 53. Carlo Buono scored a bucket to bring Classical to within a point. And after New Mission's Leroy Hamilton hit one of two free throws, Davis struck again with 55 seconds to go to make it 60-55. Nance hit his hoop seconds later, but Davis hit all four of his foul shots down the stretch to ice the game.

Nick Grassa

By Joyce Erekson / The Daily Item

CHELSEA - Classical High senior Nick Grassa picked a good time to put up career numbers.

The Rams defeated Chelsea, 70-52, Tuesday in Division 2 North first round play at Chelsea and it was Grassa doing the bulk of the damage, scoring a career-high 36 points. Grassa put on a show in the first half, burying five threes. He had 20 points by the break and although he struggled a bit from the perimeter early in the third quarter, he found his groove in plenty of time to put another 16 in the book before the final whistle. Grassa finished with seven threes, but he also proved effective in the paint, particularly in the second half.

"It (Grassa's outside shooting) was helpful too because it pulled them out of their zone," coach Tom Grassa said.

Although Classical and Chelsea don't cross paths during the regular season, they did have a number of common opponents, including Peabody, Everett and Revere. Because of this, Coach Grassa had an idea what to expect.

"I think this team is a very good team," Grassa said.

Grassa was very happy with the defensive play of Eraldo Custodio, Keith Nance, Moises Builou and Shaddai Pena. Josh Cheever provided the Rams with a presence in the paint, scoring 15 points, and Carlo Buono was good for 11 points.

Chelsea, which defeated a tough Lynn Tech team twice (once in overtime) during the regular season, was led by Sammy Mojica (17 points) and Joseph Rivera (12 points). The No. 7 seeded Red Devils won the Commonwealth Conference title outright.

Chelsea led at the end of the first quarter, 15-11, as neither team could find much of an offensive rhythm. Buono opened the second quarter with a three and Grassa bagged three more in a span of less than two minutes early in the second quarter to ignite the Rams' offense. Chelsea still managed to stay within striking distance, trailing by six heading into halftime (31-25).

Clutch threes by Mojica, Rivera and Jordan Virella helped the Red Devils tie the game at 38 with three minutes left in the third quarter, but Classical didn't buckle. The Rams took a 51-44 lead into the final quarter.

The backbreaker came with four minutes remaining when Grassa drove the baseline but instead of going up with the ball, he kicked it out to Shaddai Pena, who launched a three that put Classical up by 14 points at 60-46.

Classical is 14-7.

Classical rides big start to victory over Revere

By Christian Mielcarek / For The Item

The Classical boys basketball team opened the game on a 14-0 run and built a comfortable first half lead as the Rams cruised to a 74-56 home win over Revere.

"We shot the ball pretty well tonight," said Classical (13-8) coach Tom Grassa. "Part of their struggles was that the guys who normally hit shots were off, but part of it was our defense, too. Sometimes success is the byproduct of the other team simply being off."

Ram Nick Grassa was the game's high-scorer with 19, Carlo Buono added 15 points and five assists, Josh Cheever scored four points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, and Wally Abraham had 10 points and eight boards. Grassa also dished seven assists.

For Revere (5-13), Greg Cabral scored a Patriot-high 18 points, and Sean Quiroz finished with 15.

Classical led 25-11 at the end of the first quarter and 45-22 at halftime. The team will play its final regular season game Friday (7) against English.

Classical boys hoop records regular-season sweep of Everett

By Christian Mielcarek / For The Item

The Lynn Classical boys basketball team defeated visiting Everett, 51-37, in January, and while it took a few more points in February, the Rams were victorious at the home of the Crimson Tide, 73-60, sweeping the regular season series.

"It was a very close game in the first half and wasn't a blowout by any means," said Classical (11-6) coach Tom Grassa. "Some of our guys, players who don't usually get into the offense, capitalized, and in the third period, we really contained their outside shooters."

Nick Grassa was the Rams' leading scorer with 22, Moses Buillou added 13 points and three assists, Carlo Buono totaled two points, seven rebounds, five assists and five steals, and Uche Nwokeji scored nine, pulled down seven boards and collected two blocked shots.

Classical led 36-31 at the half and 55-46 at the end of the third quarter.

For Everett (7-6), Alain Jeanty scored a game-high 23 points, and Erno Beshommes added 13.

 

English boys hoop defeats Classical

By Steve Krause / The Daily Item

LYNN - The only way to describe Tuesday's Classical-English boys basketball game is that it was a tough slog.

Every trip up the floor -- for either team -- seemed to be an adventure. Things got so bad for Classical -- which lost the game, 67-50 -- that coach Tom Grassa wondered aloud afterward whether he even had any guards in his program.

"We had so many turnovers," he said. "We didn't do a good job with the ball at all."

Truth be told, however, neither team can say it did its best holding onto the rock. But English had three players -- Travonne Berry-Rogers in the first half and Keandre Stanton and Corey McMillan in the final two quarters -- who took control and made sure that the Bulldogs, who allowed the Rams to hang around well into the fourth quarter, came out of this one with a win.

"Classical has a lot of tough kids over there," said English coach Buzzy Barton, "and they did what they had to do to stay in the game.

"But we took control in the end," he said. "I thought Corey and Keandre had great second halves."

And Berry-Rogers was unstoppable for the first 16 minutes, scoring all but two of his game-high 18 points in the first half. Conversely, Stanton scored only two points in the first half and ended up with 16; and McMillan got nine points out of his 11 in the final two frames.

Josh Castillo -- somewhat quietly -- chipped in with 13, nine of them coming via the three-pointer.

"We spread it around in the second half," said Barton, after watching Berry-Rogers be practically the entire offense in the first two quarters.

English started out as if it was going to run Classical right out of the Cavanagh Fieldhouse, jumping out to a 13-2 lead. But that's when Classical started scratching, clawing, getting in the way, and downright frustrating the Dogs and by the end of the quarter, it was 18-12. It was only a nine-point game at the half (34-25), and when Classical ran off an 8-2 run midway through the third quarter the Rams had it down to six (40-34). Much of this came via the free throw line, as Carlos Buono scored all but three of his points from the stripe. Moise Builou had two buckets during that brief run, and Nick Grassa (11 points) chipped in with one.

The English lead wavered between six and nine points for the rest of the quarter, and when Buono hit his only basket of the night -- a three-pointer -- the Rams were only down by six (44-38) after three.

But things got away from Classical in the fourth quarter, as the Rams went cold not only from the field but from the line as well. And that's just when English began heating up. In no time, English had the lead back in double digits, and the Dogs were up by 12 (59-47) when the game turned for good.

Berry-Rogers was whistled for a technical after committing a foul (which gave him five for the game). Classical, with four free throws, could hit only one.

"We have to do better than that," Grassa said. "We have a potential four points there, and came away with only one."

From there, English coasted to the win.

"I thought our guys did everything we asked of them tonight," said Barton. "You know whenever English and Classical lace them up it's going to be a great game. And this was a great game."

English player Corey McMillen holds on to the ball as he is pressured by Classical player Josh Cheever in the Boverini boys final at Tech on Wednesday. (Item Photo / Owen O'Rourke)

English wins Boverini boys title

By Steve Krause / The Daily Item

LYNN -- It was the first of three scheduled games between these two Lynn intra-city rivals, and to say it was a strange game is to say the least.

Wednesday's Walter J. Boverini Lynn City Basketball boys final between Classical and English could have been three games in one. But when you totaled them all up, it was English ahead at the end, 78-74, as the Bulldogs won their fourth straight tournament title.


In Part 1, which consisted of the entire first half, Classical proved to be eternally pesky and tenacious, taking English's dearly beloved run-and-gun game away from it and shutting down the Bulldogs' three-point shooters. The Rams made sure that Paradise Hogan, who lit up Lynn Tech in Tuesday's preliminary game, didn't do them nearly as much damage, holding him to seven points.

For a half, it worked ... and it was Classical by five (34-29) after two quarters.

The third quarter was Part Two ... an end-to-end sprint in which English did whatever it pleased ... and whenever it pleased. The point differential was 33-15 and when it was over, the Bulldogs had a comfortable 62-49 lead.

Part Three took place in the fourth quarter when all of a sudden, you looked up and it was a four-point game, and with Classical having the ball.

But English hung on in the end to get the win.

"I have to tip my hat to Classical," English coach Buzzy Barton said. "In the first half, they slowed us down, which is not how we like to play. They dictated the tempo.

"At halftime, we talked about going back to our style, and that's what we did."

"We thought," Classical coach Tom Grassa said, "that if we could slow them down and keep their three-point shooters in check, we could be all right. And for a half we did that.

"But the whole game changed in the first part of the third quarter ... seven straight possessions, seven straight turnovers," he said.

As a result, English was able to run off 13 straight points before Classical could get a basket, and the onslaught continued from there. Travonne Berry-Rogers (26 points) heated up and started hitting his threes (he had four of them), and Josh Castillo had two others.

While English was hitting from long range, Keandre Stanton played his second strong game in two days. He finished with 22 points, 16 of them in the second half.

"He got off to a slow start," Barton said, "but he really came alive in the second half."

Stanton and Berry-Rogers handled most of English's scoring, with Castillo chipping in with 10.

But just when you thought English was going to run away and hide, back came Classical. Josh Cheever led the charge. The senior center, at times, looked as if he still had a helmet and shoulder pads on with his extremely physical play underneath. But it paid off, as Cheever -- who only had two points in the first half -- had nine in the final two quarters and did about as good as anyone's going to do with keeping Stanton off the offensive glass.

While Cheever was patrolling the low post, Carlos Buono was scoring 18 points, seven of them late in the game, and Keith Nance (12) came alive as Classical slowly crept back into the game.

"I think," Grassa said, "that sometimes, when teams get up big, they try to take the air out of the ball, and it backfires. Maybe that's what happened."

When Nance hit a basket with 26.4 seconds left, it was 78-74, and when English missed the front end of a one-and-one, Classical had the ball and plenty of time to make it really interesting. But the Rams couldn't get a shot off and the game ended.

 

Prep's fast start overpowers Classical

By Kevin Doyle / For The Item

DANVERS -- The storm predicted to hit the Massachusetts coast veered harmlessly into the Atlantic Ocean but the Lynn Classical basketball team still got snowed under Sunday afternoon.

The Rams had no answer for the three-point barrage launched by St. John's Prep as the Eagles drained 14 triples en route to an 88-59 victory, improving to 2-0. Classical, now 2-1, never recovered from a 32-8 first-period haymaker delivered by the Eagles.

"We didn't miss much and shot it very well, especially in the first quarter," said St. John's coach Sean Connolly. "And we've been stressing defense and I thought our defense was very good in the first half. That's a very good team and we held them to 15 points in the first half, so I'm very happy with our defense. We really got after them and gave great help defense on their shooters."

Notre Dame-bound senior swingman Pat Connaughton and junior Mike Carbone engineered the first-quarter demolition, combining for 27 points. Connaughton (5 three-pointers) recorded his second double-double in as many outings with 30 points and 11 rebounds while Carbone (3 three-pointers) wound up with 21 points.

The pace slowed considerably in the second quarter, though the Eagles still doubled up the Rams and headed off with a 47-15 lead at the break. From there it was simply a matter of maintenance. Classical showed its spunk with a 21-point third quarter that shaved six points off the Prep lead but would get no closer.

Steve Haladyna (2 three-pointers) joined Connaughton and Carbone in double figures for St. John's with 12 points while Freddie Shobe dropped in a pair of triples and had nine points off the bench. Nick Grassa dropped in four from beyond the arc to lead Classical with 14 points. Keith Nance and Josh Cheever added 10 each.

With a week to prepare for Classical, Connolly said the most noticeable difference between this game and the Eagles' season-opening win against Saugus was his team's consistent defensive pressure. "We also moved the ball around well and found the open man in the offensive end," he said.