Season wrap: Revere closes boys basketball season in historic style

By Dom Nicastro

The Revere High School boys basketball team finished painfully close to qualifying for the state tourney again, falling just two wins shy.

The final win — 80-53 over Northeast in the consolation round of the Patton tourney — proved to be historic.

Ethan Day scored a school-record 65 points in the game, the last basket coming in the final seconds and securing his 1,000^th career point in dramatic fashion. He is the third boy in the history of the Patriots to cross the 1,000-point mark. Sal Bottari (1987) and Trae Weathers (2010) were the other two.

Day factored in on all but one of Revere’s 80 points. He earned five assists. The only point he didn’t factor in on was a free throw by a teammate.

Revere finished 8-12 with the win. It needed 10 to get to the postseason.

“That was so surreal to be a part of, the willingness of Ethan’s teammates to try to help him accomplish this is something we all will never forget,” Revere coach David Leary said. “And to me it was a very humbling moment. Guys were literally fouling out on purpose to extend the game including his best friend Jayden Balogun. Tri-captains Avi Lung and Josh Mercado attempted like three shots in the game. It was wild.”

Revere may have put Day in a position to reach the goal, but he had to go out there, play all 32 minutes and make shots, Leary noted.

“And that’s what he did,” Leary said. “I love it that we played everyone and rotated four guys at a time around him so everyone could have a hand in this. Deep down I thought he could get close but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen. Very proud to be a part of such a great group of kids, and I am so happy for Ethan and the Day family. No player has worked harder in our nine years here.”

The Patriots played the host school Hamilton-Wenham Generals to open the tournament last Monday night.

The first quarter was a struggle for both teams to score. Senior forward Erick Mayorga (five points, five rebounds) had a basket plus the foul and senior tri-captain Day had a few nice drives to the basket, and Revere had a 10-9 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was much like the first with both teams struggling to score. Junior forward Devin Berry had a strong offensive rebound and a putback, and Day had a few more hoops and a free throw, but that was all the Patriots could muster and trailed 22-19 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same for both teams, although Revere tried to pressure the basketball and speed the game up the pace remained at a snail’s crawl. Mayorga put in another layup for the Patriots, Day had a few buckets, senior guard Peter Dacelien drained a corner 3-pointer, and freshman guard Charles Dobre had a fastbreak layup plus the foul giving the Revere a 33-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Patriots continued to struggle to score but kept up playing solid defense to keep things close. Day (27 points, nine rebounds) had a floater in the lane, a 3-pointer from the wing and a basket plus the foul to get Revere tied, 42-42, with 31.6 seconds remaining.

The Generals got fouled going to the basket with 6.4 seconds to go and 1 second on the shot clock. They sank both free throws and Revere pushed the ball up and called timeout with 3.2 seconds to go.

Coach Leary drew up a sideline inbounds play to get Day the ball to win it with a 3-pointer, but the ball rattled out as time expired and the Patriots lost another close one, 44-42. The loss put Revere out of contention for a postseason spot and went just as the season did for this Revere.

“We have just had a hard time all year winning games late,” Leary said. “Whether we are coming from behind and just can’t get over the hump or we have a lead and can’t sustain it. Again I’m so proud of the effort just wish the execution was better. That’s on all of us, not just the kids, but I’d rather be in close games than not have a chance.”

The first quarter of the Northeast game was high tempo. Senior guard Jayden Balogun made a nice layup on a bounce pass from his best friend Day, and junior guard Isaiah Llanos drained a corner 3-pointer. The rest of the Patriots’ offense came from Day netting 13 in the frame. Revere led, 18-15, after quarter one, and Day now needed 52 points in the final three quarters.

The second quarter was more of the same for Revere as Lung (10 assists) and Mercado (four assists) continued to feed their teammate Day the ball. Mercado sank a corner 3-pointer, but other than that Day had 19 points in the frame by getting to the basket, getting to the free throw line and knocking down a 3-pointer giving Revere a 40-23 lead at halftime. Day now needed 33 points to reach the illustrious 1,000 points goal.

Revere came out fast and furious in the third quarter with a solid pressure defense. Balogun hit an open corner 3-pointer and Day continued to be the focal point with two 3-pointers, a few layups and free throws in the quarter for 17 points.

The Patriots led, 60-31, and Day needed 16 points heading into the fourth quarter. It got very interesting as the Knights figured out what Revere was attempting to do for its captain and began to deny Day the ball, sometimes with two or even three guys.

“Ethan’s teammates however continued to do what they could to help him reach his goal,” Leary said. “Whether it was setting screens, passing him the ball multiple times or even fouling the other team to stop the clock to extend the game that’s what they did. The game was a formality at this point because of the big lead Revere had but you could cut the tension with a knife. Day and his teammates wanted 1,000 points and Northeast wanted to stop it from happening.”

Day made a bunch of free throws and hit a huge corner 3-pointer leaving him just two points shy of the goal.

With 1:53 remaining it seemed reachable, but with 33 seconds to go he was stuck on 63 points, or 998 for his career.

Day got a defensive rebound on a missed free throw and pushed it the length of the floor but missed a highly contested layup when four-year teammate and senior Mayorga flew in out of nowhere for the offensive rebound flipping the ball back to Day, who hit a five-foot floater with 24 seconds remaining in the game and his career. Day finished 15-for-20 from the floor, made five 3-pointers and went 20-for-24 from the free throw line. He had 10 rebounds and five assists in his final game and finished his career with 1,000 points exactly.