Freshman Kingston Maxwell stars as Abington boys basketball holds off Rockland on road

ROCKLAND -- Kingston Maxwell took a postgame wrong turn and headed toward a door marked "Girls Locker Room." Realizing his error he quickly did a 180 and doubled back in the other direction, looking for his teammates.

"Freshman," Abington High boys basketball coach Peter Serino noted with a laugh.

If Maxwell was confused by the bowels of Rockland High on Tuesday night, that's OK because he sure knew his way around the court.

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The "other" standout freshman in the Green Wave's lineup -- Tyler Staiti has been getting most of the ink when it comes to the Class of 2026 -- Kingston Maxwell stood tall in this one, scoring 9 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter as Abington held off South Shore League rival Rockland, 67-61, for a crucial victory that bolstered its Division 3 playoff chances.

The Green Wave (7-8) had dropped three in a row and five of six coming in, but big nights from junior forward Connor Pease (20 points, 14 rebounds) and the Maxwell brothers (Hunter, a senior power forward, had 13 points and 6 boards) kept the Bulldogs (8-6) at bay.

Abington was seeded No. 28 in the MIAA Div. 3 power rankings that came out Tuesday morning. The top 32 teams qualify; teams ranked No. 33 and below qualify for a play-in game with a .500 or better record.

The win, in which Abington overcame a 33-point effort from Rockland senior forward Michael Moriarty, kick-started a three-game road trip that continues at Randolph (11-3) on Friday and Scituate (10-4) next Wednesday.

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"Probably three of the toughest places to play," Serino remarked. "So, yeah, that's a big one (tonight). We're looking to get to the tournament. The season's running out on us and if we keep stacking up the losses it's going to be tough to get there."

"This game was absolutely huge," agreed Pease. "Rockland is our league rival. It's just a real good win to have."

Freshmen stepping up

Kingston Maxwell had 8 points at the half, which ended with Abington up 33-26. He was shut out in a wild third quarter in which the hosts outscored the Green Wave 18-14 to pull within 47-44, but he came up big late with a game-high four baskets in the fourth quarter.

Maxwell started the late surge with a beautiful assist -- an alley-oop to Pease on an inbounds play for a 52-47 lead. He then scored on three straight trips down the court, including a 3-pointer, to push the lead to 59-50 with 3:48 remaining.

Maxwell's two best baskets, including his final one that made it 63-55 with 1:04 left, were almost identical -- coast-to-coast layups in which he received the ball deep in his own end of the floor, slalomed his way through a fullcourt press and finished at the rim.

"The ballhandling is just at another level for a freshman on varsity," big brother Hunter raved.

"That's what he does," Pease said with a laugh. "He does that in practice, too. He likes taking people on one-on-one."

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"He's a kid who can absolutely do that," agreed Serino. "We play with four guys who can handle the ball and attack the rim. And that's tough for people to defend. Credit to him -- he was strong with the ball, he attacked and took advantage of those opportunities. But also credit to his teammates for getting him the ball and knowing that's the matchup that was best and spacing the floor so he had room to get (to the rim). He's been excellent."

Staiti hasn't been bad, either. In fact, he came in sixth in the SSL scoring at 15.2 points per game. (He had 11 in this one.) Pease was third in the league race, at 17.4 ppg. Moriarty (19.3) and Norwell's Matt Leaver (18.3) were 1-2.

"We knew Tyler was going to be great right from the start," Pease said. "We knew he was a knockdown shooter. And Kingston is a really good slasher to the hoop, and he knows when to give it up when he's getting doubled. It's a huge boost (for us)."

"We're excited about the future" with those two freshmen, Serino said, "but the present is pretty good, too."

Moriarty as good as advertised

Rockland was ice cold early, missing 10 of its first 11 shots and shooting 4 of 19 for the first quarter, which ended with Abington ahead 15-9. The Green Wave's matchup 2-3 zone caused problems as the Bulldogs simply couldn't hit from the outside.

"We knew that they were a team that like to get to the rim," Pease said, "so we thought a zone would work (against them). It's pretty easy (to master it). Once you get the concept down, it gets easier (to run it)."

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Eventually, though, at least one Bulldog heated up. That would be Moriarty, who had 11 points at the half and then exploded for 14 in the third quarter, almost single-handedly keeping Rockland in it.

"We knew that he was their best player and he was going to go on runs sometimes," Pease said. "We just needed to respond and that's exactly what we did."

It was Moriarty's third recent scoring binge. He had 32 against Carver and 31 against Norwell.

Asked what he likes best about Moriarty's game, Rockland coach Fred Damon said, "Just his aggressiveness in attacking the hoop. He's got a decent outside shot, but he'll go against three guys (when he drives to the basket). We tell him to get to the rack because he's usually getting fouled (on those drives). He's just been dominating the last few weeks. The way he's been playing offensively and doing the things we need him to do, it's won games (for us) and kept us in games like tonight, for example. For him to have half our points is something else."

Daniel Cassamajor was Rockland's second-leading scorer with 11 points, and Gaven Wardwell added 9.

Damon said the cold shooting is fact of life sometimes for the Bulldogs.

"We haven't been a good shooting team all year, to be honest with you," he said. "But one thing we have been is hard-working defensive team and we were not (that) tonight. The amount of transition layups they had was staggering. The amount of times we got beat down the middle off the dribble with no one stepping in was extremely disappointing. I thought we had a total lack of effort on defense."

Kingston Maxwell's end-to-end rushes might have brought the visiting fans out of their seats, but it galled Damon.

"Right down the lane," Damon said. "That's pretty damn good for a freshman, but we should be doing a better job with our traps. We talked about how as soon as they get the ball they rip and go and we just did not do what we were supposed to do."

Rockland's schedule down the stretch appears to be somewhat manageable. The Bulldogs face Hull (4-10 after a big OT win over East Bridgewater on Tuesday), Mashpee (3-10), Carver (10-6), Hanover (7-6) and Sandwich (1-12). But Damon cautioned, "If we don't show up on defense we're going to be in the same boat."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Rockland's Moriarty hits for 33, but Abington boys basketball gets win