Tide boys basketball newcomers experience growing pains as they adapt to the varsity game

Everett plays host to non-league Brockton Saturday night, before Malden, Medford come to town next week

By Joe McConnell

The Everett High School boys basketball team (2-4) opened up the 2025 portion of its regular season schedule on Jan. 2 with a hard-fought road loss to Greater Boston League rival Lynn Classical, 67-58.

Second-year Everett coach Gerard Boyce knows his club experienced another difficult defeat, but he foresees much brighter days ahead this winter for his squad. “It was a tightly contested affair, and I was proud of the effort our team put forth against the Rams,” Boyce said.

Christian Vasquez once again stood out for the Tide after coming off the bench to pour in 21 points to keep his teammates close on the scoreboard. Vasquez was also credited with three steals and four rebounds in another all-around fine game.

Geordiell Luna Morales also did a good job to keep Classical on the ropes with his 11-point double-digit performance.

Going forward, however, Boyce admits that it’s taking his younger players longer to adapt to the varsity game. “As we look ahead, it’s clear that finding the defensive intensity we had last year has been a challenge for our younger players,” Boyce said. “We need to focus on improving our defense, rebounding and sharing of the basketball in order to enhance our overall performance to win more games.”

The Everett boys have three games scheduled for this week to give them more opportunities to work at their craft. They hosted non-league Newton South Tuesday night, before going to East Boston to face the Jets, their coach’s alma mater, last night (Jan. 9) after press deadline. They will then close out the week at home against non-league Brockton tomorrow night (Jan. 11), starting at 5:30 p.m. Malden (Jan. 14) and Medford (Jan. 16) come to town next week as the Greater Boston League schedule heats up. Both games will begin at 7 p.m.