Malden: With a tournament berth already secure, the Malden boys team was hoping to improving their seeding as they played host to Belmont High School to close out the regular season.  Unfortunately for the Tornadoes, they ran into an offensive buzzsaw that they were unable to overcome.  Belmont shot a scintillating 63% for the game including a phenominal 12-20 (60%) from 3pt range en route to a 80-69 victory over the Tornadoes.

"We just ran into an incredibly hot shooting team tonight." Said Malden Assistant Coach Dave Leary after the game. "They jumped on us early and every time we made a push, they had an answer for us."

Belmont came out on fire, nailing 4 3pt field goals in the opening quarter to take a 24-15 lead after 1 period.  Malden answered back in the second quarter, outscoring the Marauders 14-9 to close the gap to four points, 33-29 at the half.  In the 3rd quarter, Belmont jumped on the Tornadoes again, taking a 14 point lead with just 3 minutes left in the period.  Malden answered with another run of their own to again close the gap to 4 points, 55-51 entering the 4th quarter.

"We knew, at that point, that the style of play was in their favor." Leary said.  "We are used to scoring in the 50s and 60s and this one had a 70s and 80s feel to it.  We hung tough for a while but we couldn't match their scoring."

Belmont pushed across 25 more points in the 4th quarter while the Tornadoes were only able to muster 18 points leading to the 11 point Marauders win and a season sweep of the series. The Tornadoes were led by senior Tri-Captain Loveng Francois' 22 points, including a career-high five 3pt field goals.  Junior forward Isaac Bethea also had an outstanding game, scoring a career-high 8 points off the bench to go along with 3 rebounds.  Malden now awaits their tourney seeding which will be announced this coming Friday.