St Mary’s guard Luke Willenborg drives to the hoop against Gateway’s Dylan Lafreniere during the first of two Box Out Cancer Challenge boys basketball games Thursday night at Westfield Technical Academy High School. (Photo by Bill Deren)
WESTFIELD – Four high school boys basketball teams came together to rally around a good cause, battling cancer, but only two squads came away with “W’s” in the Box Out Cancer Challenge.
St. Mary’s 42, Gateway 37
St. Mary’s (1-2) led for much of the first Box Out Cancer Challenge game, and staved off a late Gateway rally to earn its first win of the season Thursday night at Westfield Technical Academy High School.
Gateway pulled within one possession of tying or going ahead, but St. Mary’s made four free throws down the stretch to ice the game. The Saints had been 0-for-11 from the foul line before finally converting.
Both teams played a solid fourth quarter with St. Mary’s outscoring Gateway by just one, 14-13.
Aaron Blanchard led St. Mary’s with 14 points, followed by Brady Collins’ 10-point contribution, and seven from Jack Lambert.
Gateway’s Jayden Santiago-Lopez scored a team-high 16 points. Evan Cortis finished with 10 for the Gators, and Dylan Lafreniere had seven.
Box Out Cancer Challenge – Game Two
Hampden Charter School of Science 67, Westfield Technical Academy 22
HCSS went on a tear, scoring 60 points over the final three quarters to pull away. Inoah Lewis hit three straight 3-pointers to spark the offensive spurt.
“It gave them life, and they never looked back,” Westfield Technical Academy boys basketball head coach Kyle Dulude said of the opposition.
At one point, Westfield Tech was playing with three freshmen and two sophomores on the court.
“I thought they battled hard,” coach Dulude said. “We play again tomorrow so we need to just turn the page and continue to look to improve.”
Westfield Tech was also honored for receiving a sportsmanship award in a brief ceremony Thursday night.
Scharmann rallies Southwick; Rams fall in OT
Mahar 55, Southwick 51 (OT)
Southwick’s Dan Scharmann (17 points) hit a game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds remaining to force overtime. The Rams (3-2) rallied from an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit to tie it 50-all.
Mahar outscored Southwick 5-1 in a low-scoring overtime period that featured just one made field goal.
“It was loud; it was a great atmosphere,” Southwick boys basketball head coach Peter Fiorentino said. “That’s a D3 tournament team (playing) in their gym. That’s only going to help us as far as experience when we make the tournament this year.”
Southwick’s Connor Roy finished with 14 points, and Cade Billings had 10.
Deven Patch led Mahar with 16 points. Jakob Carron had 12.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Bombers rebound
Westfield 68, Paulo Freire 30
Westfield bounced back from a loss to Central in a big, big, big way.
Emma Pedolzky led Westfield with 22 points. Olivia Hadla and Chandler Pedolzky finished with 13 and 11, respectively, for the Bombers; Megan Alvarado and Kim Martinez each had six, and Kaela Mochak had five.
Paulo Freire’s Yerelys Arroyo scored a game-high 18.
