Boys’ Basketball Cruises Past Waltham 68-46

By Sam Canavan
Sports Reporter

On Tuesday night, the Newton South boys’ basketball team beat DCL rival Waltham 68-46. After a rocky start to the season, the team is now 4-4. The Lions dominated a majority of the game and had a thirty point lead at the end of the third quarter. They held onto this lead for their 4th win of the season.

“We played really good team defense and after not consistently doing that and not consistently rebounding and boxing out [in previous games in the season],” junior guard Izak Monaco said.

The team was up 35-20 at the half and were able to keep that commanding lead throughout the game.

After a start to the season that was worse than expected, including a loss to Weston and Needham, the Lions’ started focusing more and working harder.

“After losing to North we started really focusing on defense and rebounding. [We] also started pumping up the intensity in practice [and] now the defense and rebounding is starting to click,” Monaco said.

South used a man-to-man defensive scheme for most of the game which worked well against Waltham. However, they also used zone defense in selective parts of the game which forced Waltham to shoot from far out.

With good team defense and rebounding throughout the rest of the game, South was able to hold Waltham to 46 points.

Senior captain Sasha Hoban scored 18, mostly in the post, leading the team in scoring. He was aided by senior Oskar Coulter’s 14 points, who had a good day from beyond the arc.

With strong defense from Senior Andrew Bereket and good performances off the bench by juniors Lucas Nathanson, Bryce Barros and Monaco, the team was able to beat a traditionally good Waltham team by 22 points.

The boys’ team has an important game against DCL rival Lincoln-Sudbury this Friday night.

“If we keep playing defense like we did against Waltham we will be a tough team to beat.” Monaco said.