One month into the season, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) boys basketball team finally played on the home court in the Sancy Pachico Gymnasium on Tuesday, hosting Eastern Athletic Conference (EAC) rivals Coyle and Cassidy of Taunton.
The Vineyarders broke open a close game with a 30-point third quarter en route to a 82-60 win over the Warriors.
Ricardo Andrade scored 30 points, and Nick Bond had 29 to lead the Vineyarders, who improved to 6-2. Mike Power also finished in double figures with 11 points.
MV started the game on an 8-0 run, keyed by a tenacious defense that forced three Warrior turnovers in the opening three minutes.
Coyle refused to buckle under. Jayden Brown scored eight points as the Warriors closed the gap to 17-12 by the end of the first quarter. Twice, Coyle held the lead in the second period, thanks to their own pressure defense and clutch shooting from Brian Taylor, Kevin Abou Kheir, and Chuma Oyigbo.
“That’s a good team,” Vineyard Coach Mike Joyce said of the Warriors. “They have three or four new kids from last year who clearly were big and athletic. They’re going to learn, they’re still figuring it out together, but that’s a good group of young kids.”
The Vineyarders slowed their tempo considerably in the second quarter, passing the ball around the perimeter and playing more of a half-court game. Mike Power, with two treys, hit from the outside, and Nick Bond scored three buckets in the paint as MV rallied late to take a 39-35 lead to the dressing room at halftime.
“I think offensively, we let ourselves get trapped too many times in the beginning because we were holding the ball,” Coach Joyce said. “We got used to playing a little slower, because that’s the first team that’s really tried to pressure us hard. So it was good for us to get that, and then to see how to overcome it.”
Ricardo Andrade scored the first basket of the second half and, following a steal by Dylan Dyke, brought the large crowd to its feet by slamming down a dunk. In a blink, MV led 43-35, and Coyle called a time-out.
The short break provided little relief for the Warriors. Two minutes later, Mr. Andrade added another exclamation point by stuffing in a putback of Mike Power’s initial shot, to put the hosts up 52-40. The Vineyarders had rekindled their fire from early in the first quarter, and quickly took over the game. For the first time, the young, talented Warriors looked deflated.
“The energy was good in the second half,” Coach Joyce said. “I think defensively we were good the whole game. In the second half we got wide-open threes for Nick [Bond], and Ricardo [Andrade] got a whole bunch of wide lanes down the side, and got easy buckets. That turned the tide. We got a lot of turnovers, and we shot lights out in the third quarter.”
Speaking of shooting out the lights, Nick Bond and Ricardo Andrade combined for 27 of the 30 Vineyard points in quarter three. Mr. Bond, for his part, drained a trio of treys and added another in the fourth period.
The Vineyard boys, varsity, JV, and freshmen, are back in action at the Sancy on Monday afternoon to take on EAC archrival and defending conference champs Bishop Feehan. The frosh tip-off at noon, followed by JV at 1:30 pm and the varsity contest at 3 pm.
MV boys JV win big over Warriors
The Vineyard junior varsity boys rolled to a 56-25 win over Coyle and Cassidy, Tuesday in Oak Bluffs. Mike Habekost sank five three-pointers and racked up 19 points for M.V. Talon Russillo chipped in seven points, while Jake Howell and Carlos Bricoli added six apiece.