Malden High School Boys and Girls Basketball both in contention for postseason berths following big wins over Chelsea

  Led by an 18-point, season-high scoring performance from junior Zeke Noelsaint and some solid team defense, the Malden High School boys’ basketball squad rolled to a 62-31 win over visiting Chelsea at Roy Finn Gym in Malden Tuesday.

   The victory stopped a 4-game slide for the Tornados and buoyed their drive for a potential MIAA Division 1 State Tournament berth.

  With the win, Malden improved to 8-7 overall and need at least 2 wins of their final 5 games to get to the postseason for the first time since 2018.

    “We needed that win after some struggles lately,” said 18th-year Malden head coach Don Nally, “We got into a rut where the shots just weren’t falling, but we stuck with it and got this win. We need to be more consistent on the offensive end, but fortunately guys like Zeke (Noelsaint) and Jonald (Joseph) stepped up tonight.”

    Malden got a team-wide defensive effort against Chelsea led by senior captain Joseph (12 rebounds, 2 steals, 5 blocked shots) and freshman Ethan Phejarasai (4 steals, 5 rebounds). Off the bench Malden got solid minutes from sophomore Nate Sullivan (4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 5 points) and senior Aiden Tham (6 points).

      Senior captain Justin Bell scored 11 points against Chelsea.

Malden was coming off a tough stretch with consecutive league losses to Medford, league leader Lynn English, Everett (62-59) and Somerville (40-39).

    Malden was on the road last night at Lynn Classical, after Advocate press time and hosts Revere on Tuesday, February 7 at 6:00 p.m.

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Malden High girls’ roll to 9-6 overall, one win away from clinching tourney spot

    Head coach Scott Marino’s Malden High girls’ basketball team blasted Chelsea, 51-31 to improve to 9-6 overall and one win away from back-to-back state tournament berths.

    “We are playing hard and we have been putting away some opponents, but we still have lots of work to do to get better,” Coach Marino said.

    “What is great is that this is an extremely young team and they are willing to put in the work to get better,” Coach Marino said. “We are very close to one of our biggest goals, which is making it to the State Tournament. We are very close.”

    Malden’s first shot at that goal came last night at home versus Lynn Classical.  Malden also plays on the road Tuesday, February 7 at 6:00 p.m.