More than 300 boys on 26 teams opened up the 2014 – 2015 Church of St. Mary CYO Boys Travel Basketball season this past weekend.
The 4th grade team (Noone/Petersen) played to a win against St. Vincent DePaul. The entire team played great defense and made many fantastic passes. Team members are Patrick Albanese, Gabriel Alcaraz, Aidan Haggerty, Tommy Higgins, Brian Noone, Jack Petersen, Alexander Robson, Grant Valentine, Matthew Varela and Theo Vorillas. It was a great team effort and fun was had by all.
St. Mary’s Grade 5 (Karcic/B. McLaughlin) fell to a strong St. Aloysius team, 26-14. St. Mary’s played an excellent game but ended up on the wrong end of the final score. Ante, Scott and Giancarlo were particularly strong on the boards while Danny, Jack and Quinn fought hard through picks and disrupting the opposing offense. Dylan, Alex, and Jack pushed the offensive attack towards the end, but caught fire a little too late to alter the outcome. Mark led the scoring with four points.
St. Mary’s 5th grade team (Kolin/Conniff/Leder/Mastando) team beat St. Edwards Sunday night, 30-12. The team had outstanding play on both sides of the ball, showing offensive and defensive tenacity and hustle. St. Mary’s was led in scoring by Charles Balsamo and Brendan Sargent followed by Ryan Kolin, Donovan Barcelona, William Carguilo and Michael Mastando. Outstanding defensive effort was put forth by Patrick Leder, Brendan Conniff, Christian Alacqua and Nicolas Ras.
St. Mary’s 6th grade team (Motroni) lost a tough game in OT to St. Gertrude, 21-18. Down by 10 points in the third quarter, St. Mary’s came back and tied the game with one minute left in the fourth quarter on two clutch free throws by Max Schwenk. James Allen led St. Mary’s with nine points and was a monster on the boards. Alec Turkmen, Alex Giacobbe and Marco Motroni also scored.
St. Mary’s 7th Grade (Selby) beat St. Boniface, Sea Cliff by a score of 38-16. It was an extremely fast-paced and exciting game.
St. Mary’s 8th Grade (Saville) opened up the 2014-15 season with a 59-28 victory over neighboring St. Peter’s. Thomas Santella led the offensive charge with 23 points, hitting 9-of-12 from the free throw line. John Mastando added 17 points to spark the team’s 46 first half point explosion. Tough defense and rebounding by Nick Quinn (seven points), Will Allen (five points), Thomas Blaney (four points) and Ross Tortora (three points) helped the team’s strong effort.
In the opening game of their CYO season, the 4th Grade CYO Byrne/Pidherny team defeated St. Edwards of Syosset. St. Mary’s played disciplined defense and moved the ball well on offense. The players did a skillful job distributing the ball and it was a complete team effort, with every St. Mary’s player scoring. St. Mary’s also won the battle under the boards on both the offensive and defensive sides of the court.
St. Mary’s 4 (Pasquale/Sweeney) suffered a close-fought defeat to St. Dominic, 24-20.
