BABC holds serve at Boston Shootout

With an Albany City Rocks team that had just cut a big BABC lead in half, the 10th-grade championship of the Boston Shootout was still up for grabs.

However, Joey Thomas was not about to give the visitors from New York any more hope.

The point guard from the MacDuffie School found his scoring touch down the stretch as BABC pulled away for a 92-72 win at Cathedral.

BABC also defeated Albany City Rocks, 77-66, in the ninth-grade championship.

“I felt like my team needed it,” Thomas said. “We were having struggles getting to the basket or getting a bucket, so I figured I’d take over the game and get my team a win.”

“We play 95 percent of our games on the road,” BABC coach Leo Papile said. “It’s not a balanced schedule. It’s almost like we can’t let ourselves lose (in Boston), because it would be too much of a letdown.”

Thomas made sure there was not going to be any losing Sunday. BABC had let a 26-point advantage fall down to 13. That’s when Thomas hit his stride, though, as he hit a 3-pointer to push it to 83-67. He then scored off two more drives to the basket to increase the advantage back to 20 points.

He finished with 15 points, all in the second half, and all within the last 10 minutes of play.

Kendric Diaz of Arlington Catholic had 17 points, as did TJ Power of Worcester Academy. The 6-foot, 8-inch Power also had 15 rebounds and three blocks. His 30-footer at the end of the first half found nothing but net as the buzzer sounded. Jopaul McKrieth of MacDuffie had 14 points, Troy McKoy of Windsor (Conn.) added 13, and Tre Norman of Worcester Academy finished with 12.

In the earlier game, BABC point guard Amir Lindsey of the Rivers School made play after play. Whether it was with the floater — “That’s my specialty,” he said — or long jumper, he was not about to be stopped.

BABC led, 38-36, at the half, but Lindsey came out and hit two 3-pointers after a nice drive to the basket as his team took a 52-40 advantage. Albany City Rocks never really threatened after that, and Lindsey finished with 21 points.

“It’s good (to win the Shootout),” Lindsey said. “It’s our city, so we have to put on for our city.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/34QNmey