Vineyarders ground Falcons in boys hoops

MV defense and timely shooting turns the tables on Mashpee.

0

Martha’s Vineyard and Mashpee played one heckuva boys basketball game Friday night at the Sancy Pachico Gym in Oak Bluffs. Feeding off the energy from a boisterous home crowd, the Vineyarders gave a full 32-minute effort, especially on defense, to gut out a 64-58 win and even their record at 2-2.

“I thought today they competed the whole game, which is good” Vineyard Coach Mike Joyce said. “[Mashpee] is a good team and a scrappy team and those are usually the ones that give us trouble if they’re scrappy and they don’t mind being physical but our guys responded well today.”

Mashpee led for three quarters plus, with their biggest lead 10 points, but the Vineyarders stayed within striking distance and turned the game with a 16-5 run in the final period. With MV trailing 46-43, Jared Regan sank a long two-pointer. Devaun Ford, the leading scorer in Mashpee hoops history, quieted the crowd with a three-pointer but Jared drained a three to tie the score at 48-48. Ford added a free throw to restore Mashpee’s lead. It would be their last. Jeremy Regan popped in a three to finally put the Vineyarders in front at 51-49. Ford tied the score but Mike Trusty followed with back to back treys and Rammon Dos Santos hit a turnaround jumper in the paint to give the Vineyarders a 59-51 lead.

Down the stretch, the Vineyard defense swarmed Ford under the basket and Dos Santos came up with a big block and stole an inbounds pass. With time running out, the Falcons started fouling and the Vineyarders put the game away from the free-throw line, with Dylan Dyke going 2 for 2 and Jared Regan 2 of 3.

“The guys really played hard,” Coach Joyce said. “Defensively, I thought we played our butts off, Dylan Dyke and Mike Trusty, especially, against Devaun Ford, who is the leading scorer in Mashpee history. They did a good job, he still had 20-something but he worked for every one of those points. I couldn’t say enough about how good those two guys played. Offensively, we did just enough, especially in the second half. In the first half, it was a little lack of focus, a little lack of finishing some shots. In the second half, Rammon made a couple of big ones inside and Mike Trusty made a couple of big threes. Timely shooting was really important.”

Devaun Ford led all scorers with 29 points and Devon Hughes added 13 more for Mashpee. Mike Trusty scored 17 for the Vineyarders, followed by Jared Regan (15), Aidan Araujo (10), Rammon Dos Santos (9), Dylan Dyke (8), Jeremy Regan (3) and Matt Morris (2).