This promising Masconomet basketball team and its new head coach, Jacob Morales, started their season by lighting up the Concord Carlisle defense last Friday night, 74-67.
Many fans, players, and coaches think this team has the potential to do something really special this season and they wasted no time, putting up 20 points in the first quarter.
Junior captain Jimmy Farrell was due for a big leap from sophomore to junior season and his hard work and dedication couldn’t have been more evident in game one. Farrell got right to the basket picking up 12 of those first 20 points. Farrell ended Friday night as the game’s leading scorer with a high school career-high 27 points.
“We knew our offense would come but we weren’t really locked in on defense. This wasn’t the outcome we were necessarily looking for, but we have some talented scorers on offense and just really need to get better defensively,” said Farrell.
Farrell not only got the job done offensively but was a terror on defense as well, pestering Patriots ball handlers all game.
“Jimmy Farrell came in ready to play today with his 27 points, and defense was unbelievable on both ends of the court,” said Morales.
Concord Carlisle was no walk in the park. They were a gritty team full of hardworking players. Although they did not have much shooting talent, they were able to muster points in transition and cutting without the ball.
Masco will definitely need to improve defensively to do damage this season, but it’s hard not to be ecstatic about this team when you watch their offense.
The shooting attack is led by senior captain sniper Devin O’Brien who hit four 3-pointers and had 20 points for the Chieftains. O’Brien caught fire in the second quarter and when he gets hot, every shot seems to go in.
“Our offense was working. However, the main goal for this first game was defense and we have a lot of things to work on,” said O’Brien. “We have Peabody coming up Tuesday and they always come ready to play so we must be ready and get better on defense.”
A big strength of this Masco team is their depth. They have a plethora of players that they can throw together on the floor and perform.
Masco junior Cal Weidman provided a huge boost off the bench scoring nine points and playing great defense. Masco’s big men, senior Hunter Rossi and junior Jamason Vella were relentless in the paint and boast rebounding issues for their opponents.
Vella added 10 points of his own and sophomore Thomas Denton had a great first start with eight points.
Early on this season, you can already see many positive changes Morales has brought to the program.
“I’m proud of the boys for being able to finish a close battle and stay together when things weren’t going our way,” said Morales. “We have a lot to work on but I see so much potential in this team with all our size and great playmakers. We have to be ready to defend better than that if we want to make a statement this season.”
Masco will look to use their size to their advantage all season. Their starting lineup consists of players all over six foot including three players over six foot four.
“Our strength is our size. We can get the ball inside any time we want, drawing teams to double us, and then we can make the extra pass and find the extra player,” said Morales. “I think when we are keeping the ball hot and making it a ‘we’ thing and not a ‘me’ thing, we are a dangerous team and have too many weapons on the court at all times to just isolate on one player.”
With a strong start to the Masco hoops season, they look forward to a big Northeast Conference matchup against Peabody next Tuesday at home at seven, whom they split the series last year, one to one.