Mission begins a-New

Titans start 1st trek in Div. 2 with win
By Dan Keats / Basketball | Friday, March 4, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

After conquering Division 4 a year ago, New Mission gave itself a new mission to conquer bigger fish on the hardwood.

The No.  2-seeded Titans passed their first test in Div.  2 North with flying colors last night, routing No.  15 Reading, 61-43, at the Reggie Lewis Center.

After being assessed a technical for dunking in pregame warmups, Kachi Nzerem made up for the mental mistake by matching the Rockets’ first-half offensive output with 14 points. He finished with 20 points, while Samir McDaniels added 15 to go along with nine rebounds. Nzerem opened up the Rockets zone defense to get a number of layups and second-chance buckets.

New Mission (17-4) will face No. 10 Lynn Classical in a sectional quarterfinal on Sunday.

“I was happy with our defense tonight; to hold a good team like that to 43 points, it was good,” said Titans coach Cory McCarthy. “We dominated from start to finish and that’s what I wanted to do.”

The Titans led 21-10 after one quarter and then held Reading (10-11) to just four points in the second for a 34-14 halftime advantage. The lead got as high as 30 at 59-29 with 5:05 left in the game when Leroy Hamilton buried a 3-pointer in the corner, one of eight in the contest for a team that McCarthy considers to only have one true outside shooter in Nzerem, who hit five of the team’s eight.

Jerry Ellis-Williams led Reading with 19 points.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1320934