Dedham Basketball Tops Brookline

Dedham basketball forced 20 turnovers and was able to take advantage of its size down low and used a halfcourt flex offense to distribute the ball evenly in a 59-47 win over Brookline.

“Dedham executed its game plan and we had a lot of bad turnovers,” Brookline head coach Mark Fiedor said. “But obviously not having Jonah [Morgenstern-Gaines] and E.J. [Rogers] hurt on two levels because we were lacking size without Jonah and E.J. is such a spark defensively.”

Brookline weathered the storm early by keeping it tied at 15 through one quarter, but Dedham’s crisp entry passes to their big men were too much for Brookline in the second quarter. Vincent Iarrobino scored eight of his 21 points to help give Dedham a 37-29 lead at half time.

“Vincent played terrific tonight,” Dedham head coach Ed Hickey said. “We were trying to give him high-percentage looks down low early.”

The second half for the Warriors can be summed up by missed opportunities, whether it was through throwing the ball away or not pulling down rebounds. The Warriors started using a trap defense mid-way through the third quarter and pulled to within 41-38 on Shiraz Mumtaz’s put back to end the quarter.

wouldn’t allow Brookline to get any closer in the fourth, however, as Brookline got into the penalty early. Marauder captain Cam Clifford (14 points) hit a 3-pointer at the top of the key to cap an 11-2 Dedham run that gave the Marauders a 52-40 lead and put the game out of reach for the Warriors.

“Cam has done a great job of coming back from a summer knee injury and is our leader,” Hickey said. “He creates so much for the other kids.”

One of the only bright spots for the Warriors was Stephen O’Neal, who had 20 points and six steals.

“Stephen did a great job of us keeping us in the game early with his offense,” Fiedor said.

Dedham will play Norwood at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday at home. Dedham lost to Norwood in a three-point nail-biter in January.