Hamilton Hoops Player Comes Home for Sweet 16 Matchup

A Hamilton native is coming home on Thursday night as his joins the top-ranked Syracuse University basketball team in the Sweet 16 at the TD Garden in Boston.

Carter-William’s mother, Mandy Carter-Zegarowski of Hamilton, said her son was given four tickets to the game versus Wisconsin and he got four other tickets from teammates.

"They usually help each other out, depending on the part of the country they are in," she said.

Syracuse, ranked No. 2 in the country and the No. 1 tournament seed in the East, faces Wisconsion at 7:15 p.m. The game airs on CBS (channel 4).

Carter-Williams played his freshman year at and then the next three years of high school basketball at , where he was named Gatorade Player of the Year.

Zegarowski said she was at the Garden on Wednesday and saw her son during a shoot-around on the parquet floor.

"Tickets are defenitely scarce and expensive," Carter-Zegarowski said. "I wish I could get more tickets."

It is an exciting homecoming for Carter-Williams, who grew up a Celtics fan and attended many games.

"Now for him to be down on the floor is really great," his mom said in an interview with Hamilton-Wenham Patch on Wednesday.

Carter-Williams, a guard, scored 70 points in 269 minutes as a freshman but has not played yet in the tournament.

"He (Coach Jim Boeheim) is going with his veterans and they are winning," Carter-Zegarowski said. "It's a tough reality Michael has to deal with."

Nonetheless, Carter-Williams has been part of "a lot of highlights" being part of a team that has been ranked No. 1 for most of the season and broke the school record for the longest winning streak.

Carter-Zegarowski, who is the head girls' basketball coach at Ipswich High School, called the season "so much fun and amazing."