GCAA Maroon (4th Grade Boys Basketball) continued their winning ways by beating St. Rose Watson 36-27on Jan 16th. Sean Walsh and Andrew Granville led all scores with 10 points each. During this game, Eddie Blatz, Kyle Ritchie, Michael Perrotta, Greg Arning and Dan Smith scored while Eric Prevete provided strength on the boards. After two snow outs, the team played 4 games in a week starting Feb 8th with games against the Wolverines (38-36 W), Syosset Gaber (37-26 L), St. Anthony's (24-16 W) and the Raiders, another victory.

In the Feb 8th Wolverines game, Michael Walsh came back from a leg injury with a vengeance as he led all scores with 10 points while Matteo Lattanzio scored 4 points and Lucas Clay played tough defense upon their return. For the first time all year, GCAA Maroon had to employ a "Box and 1 defense" and thanks to the aggressive style of defense played by Kyle Ritchie, the GCAA hoopsters squeezed out a two point victory. The baskets made by Eddie Blatz, Andrew Granville, Kyle Ritchie, Michael Perrotta and Eric Prevete and the rebounds provided by Dan Smith all proved critical down the stretch. The injury bug once again hit the team with Greg Arning breaking his thumb while practicing basketball at school although Greg still comes to all the games providing inspiration from the bench while the team awaits his return in late February.

On Friday Feb 11th, a match up of the undefeated Syosset Gaber (9-0) vs GCAA Maroon (9-1 at the time) took place. The GCAA team played their hearts out but the size and quickness of Syosset Gaber wore the team down as GCAA Maroon now waits for a potential re-match during the season ending playoffs. Despite the loss, Kyle Ritchie and Lucas Clay put on quite a shooting display as the Walsh brothers (Sean and Michael) set up the potent offense with pinpoint passing.

Looking to bounce back from the Syosset Gaber defeat, the team faced St. Anthony's on Feb 13th and won 24-16. Eddie Blatz led all scorers with 8 points while Michael Walsh and Kyle Ritchie scored 6 each. A key to this victory was the impressive defense led by Sean Walsh, Dan Smith, Lucas Clay, Matteo Lattanzio and Andrew Granville. Highlights of the game included a no look pass from close to half court by Sean Walsh to a streaking Kyle Ritchie down the right side of the court. The coaching staff was most impressed by the team's ability to run the exact play called and score a basket at a critical stage late in the 4th quarter. All the practice is indeed paying off.

The 4 games in a week run ended on Tuesday Feb 15th against the Raiders with GCAA Maroon winning handily as each of the 10 players scored at least 4 points each in the contest. The GCAA Maroon team is coached by Tom Granville and John Walsh. The team is back in action at Island Garden on Mon Feb 28th vs. St. Bernard's and March 1st vs. the undefeated Island Garden Sharks. The GCAA Maroon 4th grade boys will play a total of 18 games from mid November through mid March as the team continues to improve as basketball players and mature as young men.