Winthrop’s season ends with loss to New Mission in D4 North final

BOSTON ? For the third consecutive season, Winthrop’s boys basketball team came to an abrupt halt in the Division 4 North final. The Vikings lost in a one-sided affair to top-seeded New Mission 70-38.”We’re by no means disappointed with the players today,” Winthrop coach Dave Brown said. “It was an absolute honor to coach these players and especially the seniors.”The senior core group, which includes Dino Mallios, Mark Jenkins, Will Milano, Anthony Hatzisavas, Santiago Ospina, Jared Bingham, Jake Connors, Robert Swanson, Gavin Mahoney and J.P. Doherty, has been a part of a Vikings organization that can boast 65 wins over the past three seasons.”It has been all about Winthrop since last year,” Titans coach Cory McCarthy said. “We changed our entire offense around for this game out of respect (for Winthrop). We’ve known that it was going to have to go through Winthrop to win the North title.”Mallios again led the offense with 15 points, despite having an off game shooting. The struggling offense seemed to run through Mallios for virtually the entire game. Jenkins hit a few big shots and just missed making it into double digits, as he finished with eight points.”We didn’t shoot well today,” said Brown. “And then when we got to the rim we had to deal with a lot of height, which was changing our shots.”Six-foot-8 senior Ousmane Drame was the biggest obstacle for the third seeded Vikings (21-4) to overcome. He controlled the paint on the defensive side of the floor for the entirety of his playing time. On the offensive side of the court he finished with nine points.It was junior guard Samir McDaniels’ day, though. He led all scorers with 19 points, including scoring his 1,000th career point late in the third quarter. The basket put the Titans (22-1) up 30 for the first time in the game. Despite being a guard, he spent the majority of the game in the post fighting for tough baskets.”(McDaniels) has come a long way from last year,” said McCarthy. “He’s hungrier, he’s taking charges. I can’t say enough about him.”New Mission will face off with Cathedral on Monday at the TD Garden for the state title.