The Vineyarder varsity boys put it all together on the home court at the Sancy Pachico Memorial Gym Friday night, capping off a girls/boys, JV/varsity hoops quadruple header with a 64-41 win over the Old Rochester Regional (ORR) Bulldogs.
The Purple sizzled from the outside, sinking 10 three-pointers; they crashed the boards, dove after loose balls, and played tenacious team defense. You name it, they did it, and they did it well to earn their first victory of the season.
For Vineyard Coach Mike Joyce, the key word was energy, something that was often lacking in losses to Falmouth and Dennis-Yarmouth in the first two games of the season. “We came out with real energy this time, unlike our previous two games, and then we made a couple of buckets and, all of a sudden, more energy came, and you could just see it on both ends of the court, hustling after loose balls and rebounds,” he said. “We played 32 minutes of hard basketball. I told them, ‘Feel what you feel right now. That’s what it takes to win. Like, the last couple of games, you guys weren’t really that tired. Right now, you guys really need to go home and just rest, and that’s how you should feel when you win a game. Winning takes effort. It takes something out of you a little bit. You’ve got to give that to win a game.’ I was very proud of the way everyone played. Everyone who stepped on the floor today played hard. There was a lot of talk on D, a lot of pulling each other along. I thought it was great. We got a couple of good runs shooting in a row and, I think, just wore them down a little bit.”
Right from the opening tip it was bombs away for the Vineyard offense. The Purple hit five treys in the first quarter, and three more in the second. MV finished the first half with more treys (8) than deuces (7).
The Vineyard sharpshooting resulted in a 21-11 lead after the first quarter. Seemingly, everything was working, and nothing epitomized the run of play more than a Mike Trusty three-point attempt that hit the rim, bounced up five feet, and dropped down straight through the cylinder.
The Bulldogs still had some bite, though, and fought back with some slick outside shooting of their own to forge a 10-2 run, cutting the Vineyard lead to 30-28. But that was as close as they got. Back-to-back treys by Aiden Rogers and a Jeremy Regan stop and pop for three more put the Vineyard lead at 39-28, seconds before halftime. Tack on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter, and that was that.
Jeremy Regan and Mike Trusty were the high scorers with 15 points apiece, Aiden Rogers had 14, and Jared Regan added 12 more. Rogers had four treys, Jeremy sank three, Trusty had two, and Jared scored the other.
“Aiden Rogers got hot, which is good, because he’s a great shooter,” Coach Joyce said. “He hasn’t had a great start to the year, but he really was feeling it early today, and a little confidence is really all it takes to get you to that next level and being able to shoot that ball more accurately.”
The Vineyarders also racked up 33 rebounds and 17 steals. Rammon Dos Santos pounded the glass for 11 rebounds, while Jared Regan and Nico de Paula had six each. Dos Santos, Trusty, and Jared Regan each had four steals.
The JV boys also chalked up a win over the Bulldogs, rallying from an early 10-point deficit to win 46-41. Ty Mathew led MV with 11 points, and Barrett Oliver added nine more.
While the boys teams had a day to savor, the Vineyard girls had a tough day at the office against the Monomoy Sharks.
The JV girls started off the Friday hoopfest, and fell to the Sharks, 46-21. Maria Andrade paced MV with nine points, and Isabelle Ribeiro had six.
The varsity girls were next on the card, and took the floor missing four players, one-third of their roster. Couple that with a ferocious Monomoy full-court press and 30 Vineyard turnovers, and you have the end result: a 41-30 defeat.
The Vineyarders led 11-9 with 4:35 left in the first quarter following a Kylie Estrella layup, but the Sharks closed out the period on a 7-0 run, and never trailed again. Taylor Hughes banked a shot off the glass to pull the hosts to 25-18 late in the third quarter, but Monomoy reeled off a 9-0 run to put the game out of reach.
The relentless Monomoy press and depleted Purple lineup made for a tired group of Vineyarders. “Hopefully, we can get our team back after the holiday break and have a full squad, and be ready to go,” Vineyard Coach Sterling Bishop said after the game.
Sasha Lakis scored eight points, and had a big first half on the defensive end, with seven blocks and four rebounds. Kylie Estrella also scored eight points, Kya Maloney added a pair of three-pointers, and Riley Yuhas chipped in six points of her own. Monomoy’s Leah Nash led all scorers with 14 points.
The Vineyarder boys, varsity and JV, are back in action on Jan. 4 at Nantucket, while the girls varsity travels to Brockton to face Cardinal Spellman on Monday before the JV and varsity squads host Nantucket on Jan. 4. The JV game starts at 12:30 pm, followed by the varsity game at 2.
