WESTON — With some of the premier boys basketball talent in Massachusetts on display at the Rivers School for the third annual A Shot For Life all-star game, there was sure to be plenty of highlights.
And, yes, there were slam dunks galore and a bushel full of three-pointers for both the Blue and White teams. But in the grand scheme of things, the Blue squad’s 178-168 win was just a part of a what made this Tuesday evening special.
There were plenty of pink ribbons adorning the uniforms and around the gymnasium as cancer research was the huge winner inside Benson Gymnasium.
“These kids are here for all the right reasons,” said foundation director Mike Slonina. “We interview all the kids and make sure the represent what we want A Shot For Life to mean and they are a tremendous group of boys and girls.”
While supporting cancer research was the primary motivation, there was still a basketball game to be played and the stars from the ISL didn’t disappoint the healthy crowd in attendance.
There was plenty of fancy passing and creative slam dunks, many of which came out of the hands of the Blue squad’s Ryan Altman.
The rising Rivers senior from Brookline, who is on his way to the University of Pennsylvania, turned the second quarter into a personal dunking exhibition. Of his 10 baskets in the second quarter, nine of them came via the dunk as he finished with a game-high 34 points.
Being a part of the game had special meaning for Altman, who lost his grandmother to pancreatic cancer in 2013.
“Anything that I can do to help cancer research and funding, I will do,” Altman said. “And it’s great to come out here and hoop with these guys. I’ve known and played with them for most of my life.”
Altman wasn’t a one man band on Tuesday as Milton Academy’s Austin Hunt also had 34 points for the Blue side. Henry Beckford added 23 points while Altman’s Rivers teammates, Jay Jones and Andrew Alekseyenko, had 21 each.
The Blue squad never trailed. They ran out to a 45-point first quarter and then, led by Altman’s 20 in the second, opened up a 98-84 lead at the break.
Hunt and the White squad’s Connor Swider of Worcester Academy dominated the third quarter. Hunt had 14 and Swider 15 as the lead expanded to 23 with 12 minutes left.
It was still a 20-point deficit with 7:00 left before the South steadily worked its way back. They got the lead down to as little as five on a Swider slam with just over a minute to go but could get no closer. Fittingly, Bickford hit a halfcourt heave as time expired for the Blue.
Loomis Chaffee’s Nick Sangermano had 27 to lead the White squad. Belmont Hill’s Isaiah Langham added 26 while Swider finished with 25. Jake Blackburn (22) and Shawn Perri (21) also had huge nights for the White team.
