In the first home playoff game in 15 years, the Masconomet Chieftains gave the crowd a show, beating Hopkinton fairly easily, 77-59, this past Thursday.
This was a strange day for the Chieftains, as 11 of their 15 players had competed in the Massachusetts DECA States Competition just hours prior, and all bussed back together a few hours before the game and went right back up to DECA after.
Even with the DECA state competition, the Chieftains’ minds stay locked in on what really mattered: playoff time. They came out hot from the get-go, lighting up the Hopkinton defense for 29 first-quarter points and an 18-point lead after one, which extended to 21 at the break.
Masco’s first-quarter scoring surge was mostly spread out, with many players dropping multiple buckets early on.
Junior guard Cal Weidman started off on fire, banging two from way downtown in the first quarter and one in the third. He has now hit an impressive 29 three-pointers, and a cool stat is that 87 of his 108 points have come from three-pointers.
The Chieftains’ senior co-captain Devin O’Brien was also on point from deep, hitting three triples and scoring a few points from the strip as he finished with a tied game-high of 17 to go along with eight assists.
“Great win for the boys in red and white,” said O’Brien. “Preparing for Middleboro is no different than we have prepared all season; we won’t change any of our keys, and we’ll keep doing what we do. We must take pride on the defensive side of the ball, rebound the ball, and let our defense dictate our offense.
O’Brien leads Masco with an astonishing 42 three-pointers hit this and is one of the three guys averaging double figures with 11.7 points per game.
“Middleboro pulled off a big upset and cannot be taken lightly as they play hard. I’ll tell you one thing: we will be ready. They may play hard, but we play harder,” he said.
To Hopkinton’s credit, no matter how ugly things got, they always kept fighting and never really went away and even outscored the Chieftains in the second half.
“We matched their intensity, if not played harder than them in the first half which was big. Kudos to [Hopkinton’s] coach; he gets those guys to play hard and I respect that program immensely,” said head coach Jaycob Morales. “At the end of the day, we didn’t come in the second half with the same energy, and that is what held us back a little bit. We need to continue to put our foot on the throttle and move forward as a program, especially on the defensive end.”
Masco had four guys over double figures scoring in this contest, and that goes to show the difficulty teams will have guarding this team. Morales loves to say he never knows who the leading scorer will be, and there is so much truth to that.
Junior star point guard and co-captain Jimmy Farrell took a slightly more backseat scoring role in this game as he faced full-court pressure through almost the entirety of the game and usually was forced to find teammates. With that being said, he still finished with 15 points and many assists.
Masco sophomore stretch-forward Thomas Denton was a key contributor himself, sinking three from beyond the arc, and finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, and multiple assists.
When 6’5 junior big man Jamason Vella gets going downhill, he can be tough to stop. Vella had a big presence down-low and was able to get the shots he wanted, landing him with 17 points and 11 boards.
“Our energy and defense from the start were the keys to winning this game, along with our shooters knocking down big shots,” said Vella.
Vella is averaging a double-double on the year and leads the North Shore with 10.6 rebounds to go with his 13.7 points per game.
“Many of our guys crashed the glass and grabbed offensive boards leading to easy points and also were active on the defensive glass,” he said.
Masco now takes on the challenge of (23) Middleboro, who just shocked the whole division two, upsetting (10) North Quincy.
“We are preparing for Middleboro the same way we’d prep for any team. We are going to come ready, play hard, share the ball, and take pride on the defensive end to make sure we take the next step forward.”
These two teams square off tonight as Masco looks to win its 16th straight game in their packed home gym tonight at six.