By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
On Saturday, boys’ varsity basketball played the Catholic Memorial Middle/High School Knights at home. Last year, Catholic Memorial knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs, winning 58–34. In that regular season, they also beat Needham 78–63. Entering this game, the Rockets were 3–0 this season.
The Rockets were in the lead 38–29 when Captain Andrew Chen drove to the hoop for a layup to open the second half. On defense, Caden McNamee nabbed the ball and gave it to Brett Stone, who brought it down the court and passed it back to him. McNamee scored a layup, bringing the bench to its feet. They were standing and cheering again one minute later when Ben Marino dribbled down the court and threw an alley-oop to fellow captain Foster Wilinski. Marino had another big play when he rebounded a Knights shot and sent a long pass to Captain Matthew Cloonan running down the court for him to put in another layup. On a different play, Cloonan crossed the key and drew the defense before sending a bounce pass to Marino for the basket.
In the final two minutes of the game, McNamee scored after making a steal on press defense. On the next play, the crowd exploded when he had a breakaway layup, bringing the score to 63–53 in addition to the foul shot he was awarded from it. The final score of the game was 66–57 and gave the Rockets their fourth straight win of the season.
Girls’ varsity has been on a similar streak, winning their games against Weymouth on the 11th 72–35 and Brookline 59–51 on the 16th. On the 18th, the Rockets got revenge on Braintree 57–43 after being defeated by them in three very close games last year, 32–36, 46-48, and 47–52. They will play Braintree again this season on February 6th. About the Brookline game, Head Coach Lindsay Miller said: “We had an exciting come from behind win at Brookline with a 25–9 fourth quarter and lots of fight from our team to get the win 59–51. Eva Andrews surpassed both 100 blocks and 500 rebounds in a very special night where she had 15 pts, 16 rebounds, and 8 blocks. We believe both milestones are school records on the girls’ side at NHS.”
Varsity boys’ next game will be at home against the Xaverian Hawks on Tuesday, December 30th at 5:00. Last season, the boys were defeated by Xaverian, who were 10–10 to the Rockets’ 10–11 that year, 36–49. They will then play the Hawks for a second time at the end of the week on January 3rd, this time at Xaverian at 5:00. Varsity girls’ will next be playing on Tuesday, December 30th at Westwood High School at 3:00. Last year, the Wolverines’ regular season record was 14–6 to the Rockets’ 11–9, but the two did not play each other. The Rockets’ full schedule can be found at: www.arbiterlive.com.
