Boston Warrior AAU Boy's Basketball: Warrior News: Papas: Former Red Raiders coach honored - Pierce, Farley & Hurynowicz lead way
Papas: Former Red Raiders coach honored - Pierce, Farley & Hurynowicz lead way
Come to Papas: Former Red Raiders coach honored at Melrose High
By Christopher Hurley/churley@cnc.com
Wed Dec 26, 2007, 07:33 PM EST
Melrose - On a night that Melrose High School honored its former long-time boys basketball coach, Nick Papas’ new team from Burlington registered a Papas-like performance.The Red Devils allowed only four fourth-quarter points on the way to a 63-50 win over a Melrose program that Papas coached for 16 years before coming to Burlington.
Burlington (2-2) led 49-46 after three quarters before a fourth quarter that was highlighted by hustle plays on both ends of the floor.“In the four games we’ve played, more people have commented about how hard we play and that’s a credit to the kids,” said Papas. “It was a tremendous team win. These kids have a positive attitude and they don’t quit.”Senior Kyle Pierce, who scored a team-high 17 points, opened the quarter by tracking down an offensive rebound and earning a trip to the foul line. Pierce made both shots to give his team a five-point lead.On the next trip down the floor, junior Brendan Farley swished a three-point shot before perhaps the play of the game for the Devils. Pierce dove head-first to tip a loose ball to freshman Zach Hurynowicz (14 points). Hurynowicz fired a beautiful pass to a wide-open Matt Trahan underneath and Trahan drew a foul. With 5:03 to go, Trahan hit both of his foul shots to make it 56-46.Melrose’s Mike Lahiff scored inside, but Farley answered when he banked home a fade-away jumper with the shot clock running down. The Raiders called timeout with 2:59 left, trailing by 10.A fancy layup by Lahiff gave Melrose some hope, but Hurynowicz delivered a dagger of a three-point shot, swishing a jumper from deep in the corner to all but put this one away.Farley (14 points) was Burlington poster boy for toughness, absorbing an elbow to his eye early in the third quarter that required stitches after the game, but returning only a few minutes later to score seven of his 14 points down the stretch.
After a pre-game ceremony that honored Papas and saw a host of Papas’ former players greet their old coach at half-court, Melrose’s current team wasn’t nearly as hospitable, jumping out to a 12-5 lead after the first 5:33 of action.Three pointers from Pierce and Hurynowicz helped Burlington cut the Melrose lead to three after one quarter, 16-13.Junior Omar Barreento was doing most of the damage for the Raiders, scoring six first-quarter points while senior Jose Fortunato added a three-point shot.An offensive rebound at put-back by Joe Gillis and a jumper by Barreento put Melrose up five (20-15) before the Devils caught fire.A long-range jumper by senior Brendan Putney, a three-point play by Hurynowicz after a steal at midcourt and a foul shot by senior James McGrath had Burlington in front, 22-20, with four minutes left in the half.Gillis hit a three-pointer, but a Trahan layup and two Farley baskets, the second on a buzzer-beating jumper from a nice inbounds pass by Hurynowicz, gave the Devils a 29-27 advantage at halftime.“In the first half we were 6 for 15 from the foul line,” Papas said. “I told the kids that we should have been up by more than two, but in the second half we were 13 for 17 from the line. We made our free throws.”The teams combined for 39 points in a back-and-forth third quarter.The lead changed hands seven times in the opening four-and-a-half minutes, the final time when Melrose’s Andy Scocca put back an offensive rebound to put the Raiders in front, 37-36.From there, Burlington used a 10-3 spurt to take a lead it would never relinquish.A nice rebound by Trahan led to a Putney layup before a Pierce fall-away jumper made it 40-37. A steal by junior Mike Murkidjanian led to a pair of foul shots by Pierce with 2:11 left in the quarter.Two more Pierce freebies and a good pass by Pierce for a Farley layup gave Burlington its biggest lead of the night, 46-40, with one minute to play in the third.
