TORNADO SPORTS: Malden Boys Basketball rallies late to top Revere, 57-52

Fernandes Dias Valadares (16 pts., 16 rebounds), Okoth (10 pts.), Bunch (10 pts.) lead team to first win

By Steve Freker

The season started about 90 hours after they all had their last bite of Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, folks, that’s how long the Malden High Boys Basketball team has been working for no paycheck. December came and went and January is close to a memory, but Malden’s fortunes changed dramatically on Saturday afternoon. Head Coach Don Nally’s squad rallied late, got some clutch shots to fall and then hung on defensively to rally and win, 57-52, over visiting Revere High.

It was Malden’s first victory of the season, ending a dreary stretch that has seen Malden go 0-12 out of the gate. The win put Malden at 1-12 overall (1-8 Greater Boston League). Revere fell to 5-7 overall (3-6 GBL), seeing its hopes of evening off at .500 with a win at Malden go by the boards.

Leading the way was junior 6-5 center Kaua Fernandes Dias Valadares, who scored a team-high 16 points and also grabbed 16 rebounds, adding 7 blocked shots for a banner afternoon on a rare Saturday matinee game. Fernandes offset another high-output showing by Revere star senior Ethan Day, who churned away with 22 points – the 8th time in 12 games he has surpassed the 20-point mark in what has been a banner year for the league Most Valuable Player candidate.

Malden’s Coach Nally was understandably pleased with Saturday’s outcome. “Our guys have been working hard all season and it’s great they were able to get a win here,” Nally said. “We got some scoring from our big man Kaua [Fernandes Dias Valadares] and some of our players and we put some excellent defense when we had to at the end.”

On this night Malden got balanced scoring, as two other players were in double digits: junior forward Colin Okoth (10 pts.) and freshman forward Jason Minervini (10 pts.). Both players put up season single-game highs. Junior guard De’Shawn Bunch added 9 points for Malden. Senior Malden captain Jose Ferreira scored one basket and 4 points. Senior Aidan Brett had one 3-pointer for 3 points and freshman Shawn Sekamwa had a basket for 2 points.

For Revere, Day led all scorers with 22 points. Lung scored 8 points, Charles Dobre had 7 points and Gio Alexandre had 6 points. Erick Mayorga scored 5 points and Nico Cespedes added 2 points.

Malden trailed early, 17-16, after the first period before going cold in the second quarter, held to just two buckets and 7 free throws. Revere got continued scoring from Day – who had 14 points at half – to take a 33-28 led at the half. Malden heated up to cut the lead to 1 point after three quarters. Fernandes Dias scored six in the third period and Malden got a big “three” from Okoth to inch within a point, down just 44-43 after the third quarter.

The fourth quarter proved to be the lowest scoring period of the game, but both teams turned up the defensive jets and made each trip downcourt a battle. Malden dialed two huge “threes” from its arsenal to first tie the game, then take the lead. Senior Aidan Brett only had one basket in this game, but it was a massive one, as his missile from the right elbow swished to tie the game at 51-51 with just over 2 minutes. Revere got ice cold down the stretch, clanging a couple of layups off the rim with Malden grabbing rebounds. Surprisingly, Malden not only did not get a free throw in the fourth quarter, it was held off the line for the entire second half.

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Malden fell to visiting Lynn English Tuesday night

Malden went to 1-13 overall with a 76-47 loss at home to Lynn English on Tuesday night. English Bulldog Denzell Guillen dropped a personal high of 43 points (7 “threes”). The Tornados were back in action last night, hosting Everett at 6:00 p.m. (after Advocate press time).

Malden is back in action Monday night, February 1, hosting non-leaguer Marblehead at the Finn Gym at 6:00 p.m. Malden closes out next week with another home game – its fifth straight – on Friday, February 5, versus GBL rival Somerville at 7:00 p.m.