This article was written and submitted by a team parent.
The St. Joe’s Celtics basketball teams finished week two of the Union County CYO Basketball season with several tough games.
St. Joe’s Pee Wee 4th-Grade Boys Green team dropped a tightly contested game 21-14 to Holy Trinity School in Westfield. The Celtics trailed by only two points late in the fourth quarter before Holy Trinity calmly sank several free throws to extend the margin of victory to seven. Mike Pirone contributed six points while Brendan Dawkins and Liam Laskowski each chipped in four. Max Larson and Derek Mingmongkol led the Celtics in assists, demonstrating great court vision and selfless play. Pirone’s aggressive defense set the tone for the Celtics. Laskowski was a dynamo on the defensive end with several steals and tipped balls. Celtics forwards Danny Guarnieri and Owen Holt were tenacious on defense and on the backboards.
St. Joe’s Pee Wee 3rd-Grade Boys team lost to a strong Holy Trinity team, 26-6, on Sunday. John Pirone and Justin DeVomecourt scored for the Celtics against a great Holy Trinity defense. Liam Haley and Matthew Corr were strong under the boards, snatching a combined ten rebounds. Henry Aaron, Cian O’Connor and Ian Webber provided leadership on the court and showed great ball-handling skills. Cade Minerley, Lukas Alexander and Declan Cavanaugh were tough on defense as they battled the pesky Holy Trinity offense.
St. Joe’s 4th-Grade Boys White team lost two close contests to Westfield teams over the weekend. The team fell to St. Helen’s, 18-16, on Saturday and lost to Holy Trinity, 19-16, on Sunday. But the Celtics showed tremendous improvement from the season-opening game last weekend. Lead scorers Connor Ward and Malachy Meyer had ten and twelve points, respectively. Jeremiah Cook and Charlie Giannone provided a strong presence on the boards while Sebastian Pappas and Callan Bauer played rugged defense. Newcomers Sean Kagel, Conor Kagel and Ronan O’Beirne showed potential in their first few games with the team.
St. Helen’s of Westfield knocked off St. Joe’s 22-7 in a JV 5th-Grade Boys game. The Celtics scored the first basket of the game, thanks to a layup from Alexander Werbaneth off a nice pass from Damian Cantaneo. St. Helen’s answered with an 8-2 run to take a commanding six-point lead. Buchi Amobi tried to keep things close when he drove in for a layup in traffic with defenders draped over him to knock the deficit down to four. But St. Helen’s countered with a couple of baskets, one in transition off a steal leading to a layup and the other courtesy of a long jump shot inside the three-point line, to take a 12-5 lead at halftime. The Celtics had trouble scoring the rest of the way as St. Helen’s clogged the passing lanes and hampered their ability to get into a rhythm on offense. But late in the game Nico Reyes found a seam in the defense and made a nice pass to Alexander Werbaneth who knocked down a jump shot from the foul line that proved to be the Celtics’ only basket of the second half. Nico Reyes and Kye Haniph were active on defense, creating turnovers by getting into the passing lanes. Buchi Amobi and Damian Cataneo grabbed a number of rebounds, keeping some possessions alive on offense and preventing St. Helen’s from gaining additional opportunities to score. Ryan Barrett and Alex Iozzio helped on defense by getting a few steals and contesting shots inside the paint.
St. Joe’s 7th-grade Boys Varsity team lost a tough 16-11 game Sunday against St. Theresa’s from Kenilworth. The Celtics squad employed a scrappy defense and some timely shooting to run out to a 6-0 lead before the much larger St. Theresa’s squad pounded them on the boards. St. Theresa’s center Greyson Hines scored a number of layups and foul shots to control the game at the end. Knee Amobi, Kyle Gonyea, and Colin O’Mara worked tirelessly on defense before Hines dominated in the fourth quarter. Forward Andrew Williams led the Celtics with five points; Luke Chmiel chipped in with four. Sam Fleetwood grabbed four rebounds while Noah Haniph and Dylan James led the way with three steals each.
St. Joe’s Pee Wee 3rd and 4th-Grade Girls team recorded its second victory in as many games over St. Helen’s of Westfield. The Celtics showed excellent teamwork as Peyton Hollis and Paloma Duvergne made interior passes for scores. Neve McGowan, with ten rebounds, and Leah Connell, with eight rebounds, made their presence felt in the middle by playing tenacious defense. Katie O’Mara and Maggie Callahan worked the basketball around as scorers Zhara Alexander, with four points, and Evelyn Calabrese, with two points, benefited by combining to score six points in the victory.
St. Joseph’s CYO is a shared parish ministry for the Catholic parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows in South Orange and South Joseph’s in Maplewood. St. Joseph’s has 15 teams for girls and boys in Grades 2 – 12.
