St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

Page 111 text:

tight Baseball struggle, but the second pe- riod saw us driving harder with the result that we held an 18-6 halftime lead. As events turned out, it was fortunate for us that we had turned on the heat early, be- cause St. Clement's came fast towards the end and our final margin of 54-29 was not too comfortable. High scorer of the day was Bob McNabb with 14 points, ably sec- onded by Collupy's ll. From the guard slots, jack Cremmen added 4 markers, while Bill Harwood sank his first basket of the year. Diminutive Bob Kelly accounted for the remaining 3 to close out the day's ac- counts. In the free try department we failed to cash in on our opportunities, for the scor- er's records credited us with only 2 suc- cesses in 11 attempts. An experiment with evening Basketball was next on the schedule, and, after super- vised study and supper at the School, we set out for Waltham to take on a powerful St. Mary's quintet. That they were a po- tent aggregation was not too evident in the first half, for we held them to a 19-11 tally, but in the later periods they really went to town while we were sagging at the seams. When the final gong sounded, we were on the short end of a 47-14 count, and the best that we could show was a 4 point total by both Collupy and Cremmen. The other six registers were divided equally among Mc- Nabb, Harwood and Hook. To account for the debacle we could only say that our bas- keteers did not have the elbow room that they had been used to in our cage, and the close quarters on the floor evoked so many fouls against us early in the game that our style of play was considerably cramped. The Christmas recess began at the close of school on December 20th and that occa- sion in years past was always marked by a banquet and entertainment. This year it was decided to substitute a feature Basket- ball game for the entertainment, and ac- cordingly Boston College High School was invited to provide the opposition for the Red and Black. Because it was the first ath- letic contest ever played at St. Sebastian's at night, the parents of our students were afforded an opportunity of inspecting the new lighting installations in our cage and, despite the blizzard which began at 7 o'clock, more than 400 spectators were on hand for the contest. While it was a fore- gone conclusion that B. C. High carried too many guns for us, the visitors had their troubles getting started and two early bas- LAST MINUTE INSTRUCTION Left to right: Bob McNabb, Bill Harwood, Coach Murphy, jack Cremmen, Hilton Collupy.

Page 110 text:

SCHOOL CAGE New Electric Installations Give the Gym an Added Attractiveness. floor of the Boston Garden for the first time. The occasion was a Catholic school triple-header in which we were called upon to meet St. Columbkil1e's of Brighton, a team that we had matched baskets with for the past few years, but they had always managed to nose us out. Our first marker came on Hilt Collupy's successful conver- sion of a free try and that set us off on the right foot. When the first quarter ended with the teams deadlocked at 8 all, it was evident that the battle would be a nip and tuck affair that could go either way. In the second chapter, the Green clad warriors managed to build up a 15-13 advantage, but that was erased shortly after halftime and we took a commanding lead, never to be headed. Head man in our attack was Hilt Collupy who, after a mediocre five-point first half, came back strong to swish in six baskets from the floor and make good four out of five free tries. Although he was well shaken up by a bad fall early in the game, Bob McNabb was chief assistant to Hilt and his 7 points were the margin of our victory. To complete the tabulation, Captain jack Cremmen and Freshman Joe Shea sank a basket apiece and Sam Hefier added a sin- gleton that made the final score 33-26 in our favor. We chose a good day to put on a demonstration of our scoring power, for all the Boston papers had a reporter present and the next morning they all paid tribute to Collupy's 21 points that made him high scorer of the triple-header program. In ad- dition, john Aherne of The Globe de- voted his feature article in the evening edi- tion to a brief history of Basketball at St. Sebastian's and spoke of our rise as a hoop power. Crowning the article was a splen- did picture of a Red and Black trio, Bill Harwood, Coach Murphy and jack Crem- men, which had been taken the previous day at the Garden. The victory at the Garden and the result- ant publicity acted as a tonic that helped us to a win over St. Clement's of Somerville in our next engagement. In the first round, both quintets played a rather conservative game that made the 4-2 score resemble a

Page 112 text:

kets by McNabb gave our supporters some- thing to cheer about. The McElroys and the Pierces found the range shortly, how- ever, and, at the midway mark, the score- board showed a 14-7 edge for the Maroon and Gold. Between the halves, Football let- ters were awarded to last season's gridders by the Headmaster. When hostilities re- sumed, Hilton Collupy found his eye, but his efforts were nullified by his rival center, George Pierce, whose 10 points eclipsed Fish's 8. As the play continued, B. C. H.'s two-platoon system wore down the Red and Black gradually and enabled the in-towners to pull away decisively until they had racked up a 44-24 victory. The totals col- umn revealed only four St. Sebastian's marksmen, McNabb with 10, Collupy with 8 and Cremmen and Harwood with 3 apiece. Before the old year departed, we played one more court contest and it took place in the home city of Lawrence Central Catholic. The day was probably the worst of the Winter, but the blizzard raging out- side was rather adequately matched by the hurricane attack which struck us on the floor of the Armory. To begin with, we missed the services of McNabb when we needed him most, and the resultant shift in our line-up that sent Cremmen up to the forward line and dropped Bradshaw back to a defense post was an unfamiliar forma- CAPTAIN JOHN CREMMEN tion that constituted a handicap early in the fray. One basket apiece by young joe Shea and Collupy was the best that we could offer in the first half, and, in themeantime, the home team apparently enjoyed the slip- pery footing on the dance floor for it racked up a 25 point count. In the closing stanzas we gave a much better account of ourselves, but our 19 was negligible to Lawrence's 34 and we were relieved to hear the final gong that announced a 59-23 defeat for St. Sebas- tian's. On the trip home, Fish's 11 was our only consolation, while 4 each by Harwood and Shea together with 2 apiece by Crem- men and Hook accounted for our total of 23. When we came back to classes in january, the New Year started on a more satisfac- tory note. Our first 1947 contest brought Belmont Hill to our cage and we returned to winning ways by handing the visitors a 51-27 defeat. From the opening gun we had control of the situation and, with McNabb's four early baskets sparking us, we estab- lished a 19-11 lead by the midway mark. During the rest period, Fr. Flanigan was rash enough to offer a premium to us for every point over 50, and he lived to rue his offer. As soon as we stepped back on the court, it was evident that Collupy, as well as McNabb, was on the beam, for practically every shot that Fish tried swished through the strings. The third quarter netted us 11 points, and then we put on a last session surge that yielded 21 more. In the mean- time, Belmont Hill's best was a combination of 9 and 7, so that our supremacy was never seriously disputed. The closing min- utes of the game had the entire bench brig- ade on their feet as their mates on the floor were threatening the 50 mark. When it was finally reached, their joy knew no bounds. A recapitulation of the tallies showed that Collupy had equalled his Garden feat of