They attended high schools just a little more than five miles apart, and enjoyed illustrious basketball careers filled with awards and sensational statistics.
College basketball notebook
Now, Pelham’s Keith Brown and Tyngsboro’s Austin Coene have moved on to Division 3 college programs roughly 100 miles apart. Their careers continue to flourish and the stats remain gaudy. And on Saturday, they’ll square off against each other.
Coene’s Roger Williams University squad will travel to Beverly to meet Brown and Endicott College (3 p.m.). Entering Thursday, RWU sported a record of 10-2, while Endicott was 9-3.
Both players have been phenomenal so far in the 2017-18 season.
Coene, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, was averaging 24.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists, while shooting 60 percent from the floor and 52.2 percent from 3-point land (12-for-23).
Brown, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, was averaging 24.9 points and 5.0 rebounds, while shooting 44.3 percent from deep. The 2016 New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year, who led the Pythons to a state title, opened the season with a 38-point outburst against Regis and followed that by dumping 45 points on No. 7 Babson — both were Endicott wins. He certainly raised the bar early on and has remained consistent all season. Brown had scored at least 21 points in six straight contests before that streak was snapped last Saturday in a win over Wentworth.
Coene and Brown are both former Sun Players of the Year.
Lindsay Werner, who played at Groton-Dunstable, is proving to be one of the premier scorers in the always-competitive Northeast-10.
Werner, a 5-foot-5 junior guard, is averaging a team-high 18.2 points in 15 games for Division 2 Merrimack College (8-7). She has also drilled 47 3-pointers and is shooting 37.9 percent from deep, while making 82.1 percent of her free throws.
Werner has scored at least 20 points in a game nine times, including a season-high 32 at Saint Rose.
Also in the NE-10, Stonehill is getting a major lift from former Westford Academy star Samantha Hyslip, who is averaging 13.9 points and 8.9 rebounds for the 12-2 Skyhawks.
Hyslip is a former Sun Player of the Year, who helped lead the Grey Ghosts to the Division 1 state championship game as a senior in 2014.
The Salem State men’s basketball team is off to an impressive 11-3 start, with the help of major contributions from a pair of former Lowell High stars.
Drew Healy, a 6-foot-9 senior forward, is averaging 13.8 points and 10.1 rebounds for the Vikings, while 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Sean Bryan is averaging 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists. Healy is shooting 61.2 percent from the floor and Bryan is hitting his free throws at an 85.2 percent clip.
Salem State boasts one of the most exciting offenses in New England Division 3 basketball, scoring at least 93 points in four of its last six games.
Billerica’s Josh Bradanese is enjoying an excellent sophomore campaign at Division 2 Jefferson (the former Philadelphia University).
The 6-foot-6 forward is averaging 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds for the 11-7 Rams, who are coached by the legendary Herb Magee, now in his 51st season.
Also making Billerica proud is former Shawsheen Tech star Emily Irwin, who has been filling up the stat sheet thus far in her junior season at Curry College.
The 5-foot-6 guard entered Thursday averaging 18.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists for Curry (8-5).
Former Bishop Guertin standout Jamie Sherburne, a Hudson, N.H. native and former Gatorade Player of the Year, is averaging 7.8 points and 4.7 assists as a senior guard at Division 1 Niagara University (5-10). … Tewksbury native and former Central Catholic star Nick Cambio is averaging 10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds as a junior forward for Division 2 Adelphi (5-12). … Lowell’s Alexi Schecter has appeared in 13 games for America East contender Albany (13-3), and is averaging 1.8 points and 1.0 rebound as a sophomore center. … Westford’s Eric McCord is averaging 7.2 points and 5.7 rebounds as a junior forward at Middlebury (9-3). … North Middlesex’s Brittani LeBlanc has appeared in every game and started 10 games, while averaging 3.4 points as a sophomore guard at Division 2 Assumption (5-9), while North Middlesex’s Drew Patno is averaging 3.3 points and 4.6 rebounds as a junior forward at the University of New England. … Tewksbury’s Emily Velozo is averaging 7.6 points for Framingham State (8-6) as a sophomore guard. … Lowell’s Jonathan Perez, a junior guard at Fitchburg State (5-9), is averaging a team-high 13.9 points. … Tyngsboro’s Liv Pierce is averaging 5.9 points as a junior forward at Salve Regina. … Billerica’s Shannon Hayes is averaging 13.2 points as a senior guard at Regis.
Follow Matt Langone on Twitter @MattLangone
