Credit: Brandon Hill

Junior captain Josh Grossman brings the ball to the net, scoring Wayland points.

On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the varsity boys basketball team took on the undefeated Weston Wildcats – who were ranked No. 3 in Division III – in an electrifying Dual County League (DCL) matchup.

The Warriors rallied to win 72-69 to end the Wildcats’s undefeated streak. Junior captain Josh Grossman led the way for the Warriors, scoring 25 points, and junior Cooper McFarlane hit multiple key three-pointers in crucial moments.

Weston came out firing and surged to a 7-0 lead, forcing first-year head coach Jeff Brewington to burn a timeout just two minutes into the game. Some spectators may have assumed that Wayland was headed for a repeat of the outcome from a week earlier, when the Warriors fell 76-56 in the same matchup.

Instead, Wayland responded with a 14-2 run that involved every starter scoring.

“I think that getting everyone on the board early was huge to our success,” Grossman said.

Weston finished strong to retake the lead 18-17 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was much closer, with neither team exceeding a lead of four points. Down one with just 5.5 seconds left, junior Jack Renneker floated a beautiful pass that gave senior Will Walters a go-ahead layup, giving Wayland a 33-32 lead as time expired in the half.

“We’re playing great, but we need to get to the line more,” Brewington said in a halftime interview.

Despite the lead, Wayland didn’t earn a single free throw in the first half.

Wayland came out of the locker room flat, and with less than two minutes to go in the third quarter, Weston had built a 44-38 lead. However, McFarlane rattled off back to back three-pointers in less than a minute to erase the six-point deficit.

“My teammates set me up for open shots, and once the first shot goes in. then it feels like I get into a rhythm,” McFarlane said.

The third quarter ended with the teams clinched in a 46-46 tie.

Wayland carried their offensive momentum into the fourth quarter, scoring on most of their possessions, but picked up a lot of fouls defensively, keeping Weston in the game. With 2:35 remaining, the teams remained tied 58-58, and the field house fell silent as fans started to realize how close the Warriors were to an upset.

After Grossman scored a layup to give Wayland the lead, it was junior captain Joshua-Lewis Guy who took over the game. Guy blocked a Weston player’s shot, scored a layup, hit a three and knocked down two clutch free throws to put the Warriors ahead 70-64 with just 23 seconds left. The game looked all but over, but Weston senior Leo Kirk hit a three pointer from the corner to keep Weston in the game with 14.3 seconds left. With the game on the line, all sophomore Giovanni Sailsman had to do was make one free throw, and he did just that, putting Wayland ahead by four. Weston made an effort to miraculously come back, but it was too late.

Wayland improved to 5-4 with the win and 2-1 in conference play. The win was their first against Weston since February of 2023.