On Friday, February 1, the Varsity Boys’ Basketball team defeated Newton-South with a final score of 58-51.

WA started the game slowly and lagged behind Newton-South for the first two quarters, but after the halftime, they picked up the speed.

The first basket was claimed by Newton-South, but was soon followed by a three-pointer made by senior Michael Zacharchuk. The quarter continued with scores made by both teams. WA and the opposition were both tied 9-9 with just three minutes left when senior co-captain Ben Lawrence added three points to WA’s score. Newton-South, however, caught up and was in the lead by five points, ending the first quarter with a score of 12-17. 

The second quarter started with Zacharchuk scoring a three-pointer, increasing the score to 15-17, but Newton-South increased their score through a free throw. WA made a great effort to increase the score, but with four minutes left, the score was 19-23. Senior co-captain Scott Beattie and junior Aryah Purandare made two-pointers, but WA still lagged by five points.

The second quarter came to a close with a score of 24-29 with Newton-South in the lead.

After halftime, Zacharchuk started the third quarter strongly with a three-pointer, followed by a two-pointer by Lawrence and a three-pointer by senior and co-captain Adam Scaramuzzo. With three minutes left, the score was 32-34 with WA just two points behind the opposition. A three-pointer made by Zacharchuk brought WA’s score up and in the lead. Lawrence followed Zacharchuk’s three-pointer by adding two more points to the score.

The game’s intensity was seen when there was just two minutes left on the clock. The ball’s possession kept switching between the two teams until Scaramuzzo made a two-pointer and a free throw further distancing WA’s score from Newton-South’s. With just 30 seconds left on the clock, Newton-South made a free throw but didn’t manage to catch up to Westford Academy.

The third quarter resulted in a score of 42-40.

The last quarter started off with a free throw made by junior Ayush Purandare followed by a three-pointer made by Zacharchuk. Junior Josh Rosenstein made two three-pointers just 4 minutes into the quarter with the score at 53-44. Newton-South made an effort to catch up but still lagged behind WA. With just 55 seconds left on the clock, senior and co-captain Scott Beattie made a remarkable steal, helping Scaramuzzo make the final two-pointer and free throw.

The fourth quarter ended 58-51 with WA winning.

Before the game, Varsity Boys’ Basketball head coach, Chris Bramanti was nervous since WA beat Newton-South last time by 17 points, and believed this was Newton-South’s revenge game.

“I was definitely nervous because we beat them last time by 17 [points] and I was afraid that this was a revenge game for them […] but we stood our ground and battled and I’m really proud of how it worked out,” Bramanti said.

The game was held on senior night, which put a lot of pressure on WA’s senior players, but in the end, they beat the opposition.

“It was so amazing to end my home senior career here[…]. It was a great team win,” Lawrence said.