St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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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

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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.

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21, while McNabb pressed on his heels with 18. The other assets of the day were -f by both Cremmen and Kelly, and 2 each by Harwood and Kett. Naturally, the type of play shown by our hoopsters was a refresh- ing delight to the coach and student body, and now we may say in retrospect that in that contest the St. Sebastian team reached its zenith of the 1946-47 season. We maintained the best Indian traditions of Nonantum Hill by scalping the next in- vaders, Immaculate Conception of Revere, although our margin was only a 20-19 hair. In contrast to the whirlwind finish that we put on against Belmont Hill, our play was lethargic-so much so that Collupy was the only Arrow able to hit the mark in the first quarter. The second and third frames yielded only 1 and 5 points respectively, and, with 75fXp of the game over, we trailed by a miserable 15-ll. At that point it sud- denly dawned on us that we could lose the contest, so we put on a brief scoring flurry that gave us 9 points in the last period to the visitors' 6. On the strength of our last session showing, we just barely eked out a 20-19 win that was not much to boast about. Once again, Hilton topped our scorers with 12 credits, but Kelly's -i, Cremmen's 5 and McNabb's l came in handy. In the foul de- SET SHOT Gold. l partment we had 18 chances and cashed in only on 6--a not too satisfactory perform- ance. Our next call to action was against Sacred Heart of Newton on the floor of the Weeks junior High School gym. All season long we had been receiving reports of this quintet's prowess and high scoring talent, and the fact that we numbered many for- mer Sacred Heart boys in our student body lent greater interest to the meeting. It was unfortunate that we were not at full strength for the evening battle, but we were without the services of Bob McNabb, whose cold had developed into pneumonia. Early in the game the height advantage that Sacred Heart had on our forwards, Kelly and Kett, began to tell and their rangy Nangle and Steffens were scoring over our heads. At the half we trailed 25-15, but the last two periods were a different story. Close covering of Nangle and Steffens reduced their damage to a minimum, while we took and sank long shots, matching our rivals point for point. This was not enough, how- ever, to offset their early lead and we were forced to accept a 58-27 verdict against us. For the first time in his cage career, Bob Kelly set the pace for the Red and Black with 9 points to match his Hoof rival, Stef- McNabb gets one off to worry the Maroon and 109