On Friday night, the Blackstone Valley Tech boys basketball team did their best to pay tribute to Pena in a 69-61 defeat to Worcester Tech in a Colonial Athletic League clash.
UPTON — Earlier this week, the Blackstone Valley Tech community suffered a devastating loss.
On Tuesday, senior Tony Pena – who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in November – succumbed to his battle with brain cancer.
On Friday night, the Blackstone Valley Tech boys basketball team did their best to pay tribute to Pena in a 69-61 defeat to Worcester Tech in a Colonial Athletic League clash.
“This was a very hard game for us emotionally,” said BVT sophomore point guard Josh Mateo, who played football with Pena. “We love the kid, we played our hardest for him and that’s all that you can ask for.”
The emotional night began with a moment of silence in tribute of Pena.
Moment of silence held for@BVTBeavers senior Tony Peña who passed away earlier this week after losing his battle with brain cancer@MetroWestSportspic.twitter.com/xTJh10RZWd
— Ethan Winter (@EWints)January 17, 2020This wasn’t the first BVT home game since Pena’s passing. On Wednesday night, the girls basketball team hosted AMSA and paid tribute to their fallen classmate by writing Pena’s football number #54 on the soles of their sneakers, according to BVT athletic director Michele Denise.
On Friday night, the boys team wrote “Pena Strong” on their arms and wore white wrist bands out of tape that said “P4P” – or “Play for Pena.”
FINAL: Worcester Tech 69,@BVTBeavers 61. Jasiel Latorre (WT) 23 points, Shea Finnegan (BVT) 18 points, Josh Mateo (BVT) 18 points. Josh Mateo talks about what this game meant for him and his team in the Beavers first home game since losing classmate Tony Peña who died on Tuesdaypic.twitter.com/PlO8F9fbXT
— Ethan Winter (@EWints)January 18, 2020“It’s been a very difficult week for the Blackstone Valley Tech community,” second year Valley Tech coach Brew Cupid said. “We pray together as a team, before the game and we thought about this young man through the course of the game.
“He was our lift throughout the game and we gave our all and for what I know of this young man, Tony Pena, he’s been an amazing reflection of what strength and character is and this has been one week that we will never forget, but we are going to use his strength and the love of our team that we have for him and this school to just rise above for the rest of the season.”
Throughout the game there were reminders that Tony was watching.
About halfway through the fourth quarter with the Beavers trailing by four and the game still in doubt, Mateo went up to the free-throw line and fired his foul shot. The ball bounced on the rim once, twice, three times and on the fourth bounce it went through the hoop and in.
“That was him,” Mateo said. “I pointed (to my wrist) and to the sky because I knew that was him.”
Mateo also scored the first bucket of the game, which was especially meaningful to him, having played football with Pena.
“That was big,” Mateo said. “Right after I scored I pointed up to him, because that was who I was playing for, that is who my teammates were playing for today, we just couldn’t close out the win for him.”
For a time it looked like there could be a little magic tonight from the great beyond.
Trailing the Eagles 38-31 at halftime, the Beavers came out in the third quarter with a lot of energy on defense holding Worcester Tech to just two points in the entire frame. BVT ended up coming back to take a 45-40 lead at the end of three, outscoring the Eagles 14-2 in the third quarter.
Ryan Braun hits a huge three to tie it up at 40 all and then Shea Finnegsn hits a three to give@BVTBeavers a 43-40 lead it’s first lead since 2-0 in the first quarter. 1:03 left in the 3rd quarter@MetroWestSportspic.twitter.com/e74NOKd3Ad
— Ethan Winter (@EWints)January 18, 2020Senior Ryan Braun (8 points) hit a 3-pointer to tie it and then Shea Finnegan came right back down the floor and hit a three to take the lead at 43-40. It was the first lead that the Beavers had since they led 2-0 on Mateo’s layup to start the game.
“That third quarter was an amazing quarter because we got our composure at halftime and this is the style that Blackstone Valley boys basketball will play moving forward, where we come out at the third quarter and we want to play basketball,” Cupid said. “Worcester Tech is the reigning champion at our level and we just proved tonight that we are up for game. That was a great third quarter, but the game in its entirety didn’t go our way.”
The Eagles then began pressing in the fourth quarter, to slow down BVT’s offense as Worcester Tech eventually came back to retake the lead.
The game stayed mostly tight the rest of the way until a dagger 3-pointer by Deron Kumah made it a 10-point game at 65-55 with 1:48 left in the game sealed it.
Ethan Winter is a senior multimedia sports journalist at the Daily News. He can be reached at 508-626-3987 or ewinter@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @EWints. Sign up for the Sports Headlines Newsletter, which is sent to your email every morning by clicking here for the MetroWest Daily News and here for the Milford Daily News.
2020-01-18 03:53:00Z
https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/sports/20200117/blackstone-valley-tech-boys-hoops-falls-to-worcester-tech-on-night-beavers-honor-late-classmate-tony-pena
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