Derkautsan and Thurman Break 100 Points over Weekend.

St. John's Tops Headers
Feb. 11, 2011 At the Marblehead Community Center, the St. John's Boys Bantams took on Star of the Sea of Marblehead.

Marblehead scored first to take an early lead. Dylan Hayes tied it with a jumper at 13:01.

Both teams then exchanged baskets. Matty Moran blocked a shot and then came down the court and took a pass from Max Emmerich for the lead with 10:46 to go.

With the score evened back up, Gavin Sullivan scored and then fed Chad Swigor for a hoop which started a 13-2 run to open up an 11 point lead. But Star of the Sea battled back with an 8-0 run of its own to cut the lead to three.

In the last minute of the half, Gavin Sullivan picked up the pace. He hit a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left and followed that up with another hoop to send St. John's into the half with a 24-16 lead.

Star of the Sea opened the second half with a basket but Dylan Hayes took over from there. He scored the next six Swampscott points to push the lead to double digits.

After a Marblehead free throw, St. John's went on a 12-0 run to put the game away.

Gavin Sullivan led Swampscott with 11 points and 7 rebounds. Dylan Hayes added 8 points in the 42-26 win. St. John's has now won 4 of their last 5 games. They play their last home game tomorrow vs. St. Mary's of Lynn.

Derkautsan Doubles Over St. Mary's
Feb. 12, 2011 At the Swampscott Middle School, the St. John's Boys Bantams took on St. Mary's of Lynn.

Alex Derkautsan came out firing for St. John's.

He scored the first basket of the game and then hit a 3-pointer for a 5-2 lead with 12:51 to go in the first half. This started a 6-0 run highlighted by a Chad Swigor steal and basket for an 11-2 lead at the 8:01 mark.

St. Mary's closed to within eight but Matty Moran scored on an offensive put back for a 10 point lead with 2:54 left. As the half ended, Dyan Hayes stole the ball and drove for a hoop and a 19-8 half time lead.

The second half opened with a 9-0 St. John's run powered by Alex Derkautsan. He hit back to back baskets, the second on a feed from Luke Marshall.

At the 10:43 mark, he hit a 3-pointer for a 26-8 lead. After a Brendan Bradley put back, Derkautsan scored again at the 7:16 mark for his 100th point of the year. A time out was called and Derkautsan left the game with his team now up by twenty points.

Noah Carreiro would finish off the game with a hoop assisted by Jack Leahy to make the final score a 40-20 St. John's win.

Derkautsan had a big game as he finished with a double double of 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Despite not scoring, Jack Leahy had a great game as he had 8 rebounds and 2 assists. Brendan Bradley added 6 rebounds as St. John's won their 4th straight game.

Derkautsan and Thurman Top 100
With 17 points on Feb. 12 against St. Mary's, Alex Derkausan became only the 14th player to top 100 points in a season since 2006.

Travis Thurman also scored his 100th point of the season (he also did it last year) against St. Adelaide of Peabody on Feb. 13th.

They join Donnie Weisse who scored 100 earlier this year. Randolf Thurman holds the record with 310 points in 2007. Besides Thurman (who did it 3 times), Michael Zikianda, Alex Cormier, Chris Cameron, AJ Baker, Chad Nelson, Jack Fitzpatrick, Michael Walsh, Bailey Kennedy, Frankie Legere, and James Collins have all scored 100 points in a season.

Swampscott Falls in Battle of St. John's
Feb. 12, 2011 At the Swampscott Middle School, St. John's of Swampscott took on St. John's of Peabody in their final home game.

Bailey Kennedy got things going for Swampscott as he nailed a 3-pointer and another basket for a 5-0 lead.

But Peabody went on a 16-6 run to retake the lead. AJ Carrigan's basket on a feed from Alex Cormier cut the lead to three with 5:40 left in the half.

Donnie Weisse's drive with 3:12 left cut the Peabody lead to two at 18-16. A 7-0 Peabody run was finally stopped on a Ryan Bradley basket with 7 seconds left as Peabody went into the half with a 25-18 lead.

After a Peabody basket to open the second half, Donnie Weisse hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 27-21 at the 11:30 mark. Peabody would extend the lead to 13 before Swampscott started to comeback.

Sam Carmosino's 3-pointer brought the lead back to ten with 6:50 left.

Down eight with 5:33 to go, Ryan Bradley started making free throws. He made four free throws to cut the lead to 36-32 with 4:04 left in the game. But Swampscott ran out of gas.

Peabody closed out the game with a 16-2 run to hand St. John's of Swampscott the loss.

Donnie Weisse led Swampscott with 11 points. Ryan Bradley added 6 points in the defeat. Swampscott finishes the regular season against undefeated St. Adelaide of Peabody on Sunday.

St. John's Improves to 12-1
Feb. 12, 2011 At the Swampscott Middle School, the St. John's Girls Bantam Blue took on St. Joseph of Medford.

Kendall Rhodes led the early charge. She scored six of the first eight points and assisted on the other basket to Hannah Leahy for an 8-0 lead at the 2:04 mark.

St. John's continued to pour it on. Back to back baskets by Gabby LaRiviere made it 16 straight points for the Lady Blue.

Elizabeth Weisse assisted on two straight Hannah Leahy hoops and the shocked St. Joseph team was down 20-0. Medford finally scored with the clock winding down but Swampscott led 25-2 at the half.

St. Joseph tried to snap out of it by scoring the first four points of the second half. But Veronica Rizzo put an end to any comeback hopes.

She scored on a pass from Lily Burkett and then grabbed an offensive rebound and scored again for a 29-6 lead with 8:29 left. St. John's rolled from there for a 37-11 victory.

Hannah Leahy (8 points and 7 rebounds) and Kendall Rhodes (8 points) led the St. John's scoring.  

Lily Burkett (12 rebounds and 6 points) dominated the inside for St. John's. With the win, they improve to 12-1 and have a big matchup in their regular season finale vs. the 11-2 St. Francis of Medford team tomorrow.

St. John's Drops Close One
Feb. 13, 2011 At Breed Middle School in Lynn, the St. John's Boys Bantams took on St. Adelaide of Peabody.

St. John's jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after baskets from Gavin Sullivan and Matt Moran.

St. Adelaide stormed back to take the lead. With 4:33 left in the first half. Peter Battinelli grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to put St. John's back ahead.

Both teams battled down the wire. Gavin Sullivan's two free throws with 29 seconds to go sent St. John's into the half with a two point lead.

St. Adelaide opened the second half with two early baskets to take back the lead.

Alex Derkautsan hit a jumper and then fed Gavin Sullivan on their next possesion for a 17-16 St. John's lead. But St. Adelaide went on a 10-3 run to take a 26-20 lead.

St. John's would not go away. Gavin Sullivan drove baseline to cut the lead to four. Alex Derkautsan then hit two free throws to bring them within four.

After a defensive stop, AJ Venuti scored to make it 28-26 with 2:19 left. St. John's settled down and got another stop.

On the ensuing offensive set. Jack Leahy kept things alive with two offensive rebounds before Alex Derkautsan was fouled.

Derkautsan made 1 of 2 to bring Swampscott within one point with 2:01 to go. After a made Peabody free throw, Gavin Sullivan was fouled and hit 1 of 2 with 1:10 to go and St. John's trailing 29-28. But St. Adelaide would hit their free throws down the stretch and St. John's couldn't get their shots to fall and Peabody held on for a 32-28 win.

Gavin Sullivan led St. John's with 10 points and 6 rebounds. AJ Venuti controlled the boards with 13 rebounds. Chad Swigor had a big defensive game as he held St. Adelaide's leading scorer to just 4 points after having scored 22 in their first meeting.


St. John's Comes Back for Win
Feb. 13, 2011 At the Gene Mack Boys and Girls Center in Medford, the St. John's Girls Bantam Blue took on St. Francis of Medford. St John's came into the game 12-1 and St. Francis was 11-2.

St. John's was cold shooting early on and St. Francis was hot.

Before St. John's could even score, it was 12-0 Medford. Kendall Rhodes finally got St. John's on the board with 4:48 left in the first half.

Hannah Leahy hit three free throws down the stretch to cut the lead in half as St. Francis led 14-8 at the half.

Sometimes adversity brings out the best in teams and St. John's needed their best.

They did not panic and they came out flying. Eleni Laskaris scored six straight points to even the game at 14 apiece at the 10:20 mark of the second half.

After St. Francis retook the lead, Kasey Kennedy hit a big jumper to even the game back up. Hannah Leahy hit two more free throws for an 18-16 lead.

The game was still up for grabs. With 5:11 to go, Kendall Rhodes tossed up an alleyoop pass to Hannah Leahy for the score and a four point lead.

After a matching baskets, Jaymie Caponigro put the finishing touches on St. Francis. She scored back to back baskets to give Swampscott a 26-18 lead with 1:22 left. St. Francis tried to rally but ran out of time.

Hannah Leahy led St. John's with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Eleni Laskaris was dominant on the boards for Swampscott. She finished with 19 rebounds to go along with 8 points.

St. John's finishes the regular season at 13-1. The best St. John's CYO record since Randolf Thurman led the Boys Bantams to a 12-2 record in the 2006-2007 season.