The Oak Bluffs girls and West Tisbury boys basketball teams reigned supreme in this year’s middle school championship played at the regional high school.
The polished hardwood of the regional high school basketball court gleamed beneath the bright gymnasium lights, reflecting the figures of the 10 players racing up and down the lanes. The championship game of the boys’ middle school basketball season was underway.
The novelty of playing at the Vineyard version of the big time, the Francis “Sancy” Pachico Gymnasium, was there for both teams on the court.
The Eagles have landed. In closely-matched, hard-fought games at the middle school basketball championships Tuesday night, the Edgartown School girls’ and boys’ teams both took home trophies.
The middle school boys’ basketball team at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School is a team without walls.
They don’t have a gym at their school so all winter long they practice outside on an asphalt court. On Sundays they make the trip to the Tisbury School to play on real hardwood floors. They also practice in their driveways and at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, where they play their home games.
No matter what level of sport is being played, the adage remains the same: Defense wins championships. And it was on the strength of shot-blocking and rebound-grabbing, as much as their own shots themselves, that the Edgartown girls held off the West Tisbury squad 41-18 Tuesday night in the middle school basketball championship game at the regional high school gym.
