Nicole Boudreau (23 points) also blocked shots in the Andover win.

Billerica was hurt by missed free throws (four) in the last 1 1/2 minutes of this close game.

(Andover) The undefeated (13-0) Andover Golden Warriors got their first taste of a close game this season and hung on to defeat the Billerica Indians, 53-52, in front of a good crowd at AHS on Thursday night.

Andover, led by Nicole Boudreau (23 points), put their points up in bunches nailing ten long ones.  Nicole connected on six triples.

The resiliency of the Indians (11-2) was impressive.  The Warriors hit them with a 14-3 run in the second period and they trailed, 26-15.  In the fourth period it was a 13-2 run that had them trailing, 53-46. But they rallied back both times.

While Andover relied heavily on an outside game, the Indians did their damage inside.  Of their eighteen baskets, sixteen were from in close.

Down 26-15, just 2 ½ minutes into the second quarter, it appeared that Billerica was on its way to losing badly.  (Andover had won its first twelve games by an average of twenty-two points.)  But the Indians followed with a 23-9 segment and had a 38-35 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter.  Three old-fashioned 3’s by Joslyn King (14 points), Danielle Nickerson (9 points), and Kayla Leverone (10 points) were highlights in the Billerica comeback.

Early in the final quarter, a well-executed inbounds play turned up Billerica’s only successful triple (Kayla Leverone) and the visitors had their biggest lead (44-40) of the game and had their fans sensing the upset.

Angelice Gonzales - scored the winning basket after stealing an inbounds pass

But this is two-time D1 defending state champs Andover were talking about.  Big crowds.  Big games.  Been there…done it.  That’s why the 13-2 response they put together wasn’t surprising.  The long ones played a part (two by Ally Fazio & one by Nicole Boudreau), as did two free throws (Nicole).  But the biggest basket of the game, in fact, the actual game winner, was a “pick-two” by junior Angelica Gonzales (6 points) with four minutes left that put the Warriors ahead, 53-46.

The last four minutes of the game were all Billerica and you’re about to find out how close they came to actually winning this one.

First of all, the last two points Billerica scored were on a putback by Joslyn King at the buzzer.  Andover wasn’t exactly trying to stop her from getting two points because they had a 3-point lead.  Their worry was the game-tying attempt by Brittany Lomanno (8 points) just before that.

That last-second Joslyn basket would have truly meant something if the Indians had not missed four of eight free throws in the last 1 ½ minutes.  Shannon Hughes, Danielle Nickerson, and Kayla Leverone each had crucial misses.  Danielle’s was the toughest because she actually made hers but stepped over the line too quickly to go after a possible miss.

Joslyn King (6-1?) did a great job of discouraging Andover inside attempts, although the Warriors seemed very content to fire from downtown.

Nicole Boudreau had several blocks and a few others that looked like blocks but turned out to be fouls.

Ally Fazio - two big triples in the final quarter

Ally Fazio (6 points) took three quarters to hone in from the outside.  She had a number of air balls but never stopped shooting.  The two she made in the final quarter were huge.

Andover threw heavy defensive pressure at Billerica especially in the backcourt.  I thought that the Indians did a pretty good job breaking it and going on for layup attempts.

The only loss Billerica had prior to tonight was against Pentucket.  The Sachems are swarming full-court defenders with a love of the long shot.

There is an Andover/Billerica rematch on February 14th at Billerica.  That should be a good take!

It is common knowledge that Nicole will be playing for Boston College next season.  What I also learned about her was that she carries a 4.0 GPA and is the defending junior champion at Andover Country Club.

Andover box score

Billerica box score

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Nicole Boudreau blocks Danielle Nickerson

tight defense?

Danielle Nickerson

Nicole Boudreau double-teamed

Joslyn King (14 points)

Jackie Alois layup

Brittany Lomanno

Nicole Boudreau triple as BHS coach Chris Doneski watches

Kayla Leverone and Devon Caveney

Duncan Robinson poured 32 points on Kents Hill including this early jam.

Eli Roberts had nineteen points for overmatched Kents Hill.

(Byfield) When a private school in Class C plays against a bigger Class B school, you can get a mismatch.

Such was the case as Governor’s Academy (9-3) crushed Kent’s Hill (Maine), 82-40, on Wednesday afternoon.

The vastly undersized Huskies (3-5) had multiple shots maybe two or three times during the entire game.

Meanwhile, the Govs’ eyes lit up as they got to shoot against a zone defense for the full thirty-two minutes……and did they shoot!  How does connecting on eleven 3’s sound?

Duncan Robinson (32 points) scored from just about everywhere and made it look easy.  The 6-6 senior had dunks, jumpers, layups, and 3’s.  The only missing piece was free throws because there just wasn’t enough Huskie defense when the Gov starters were in.

Seldom seen Max George (17 points) connected on five triples.  Stephen Basden had nine points and five assists.

Eli Roberts paced the Huskies with nineteen points.

The Govs jumped off to an 11-1 start in the first 3 ½ minutes and never looked back.  Duncan Robinson set the tone taking the opening tip in for a layup and followed that with a steal that ended with a dunk.

Max George (17 points) came off the bench to nail five triples.

The lead stabilized to 19-8 with Eli Roberts getting all of KH’s points.  The wheels fell off for the visitors over the next 1 ½ minutes as GA ran ten unanswered almost entirely on the inside – so much for a zone defending in close to the basket!

That 29-8 spread was 38-19 at halftime.

GA coach Mike Williams had substituted quickly and liberally in the first half.  He returned the starters to the floor at the outset of the second half and we were treated to The Duncan Robinson Show.

Duncan put together a twelve point run by himself and was assisted on four of the five baskets he made.  We saw two layups, a tip in, a dunk, and a triple.  Quite the show!

That “show” extended the GA lead to, 50-23, with nearly eleven minutes left.

But there was more.  After baskets by O’Shea Bell and Eli Roberts, the Gov put together a 14-1 segment in three minutes.  Duncan had three 3’s during this burst and assisted on Kam Nobles triple.  So now it was 64-28 with nearly nine minutes left.  All reserves the rest of the way to the 82-40 end.

The lighting at Governor’s continues to be a mystery to this amateur photographer.  Stationary shots…..not so bad.  Action shots……work in progress.  I’m quite sure that brighter lights in that place would help.

The number of wide open looks amazed me.  I saw the GA/Andover game and the only open shots were in warm-ups!

Governor’s boxscore

Kent’s Hill boxscore

(The pictures above and below will enlarge if you click on them.)

Duncan Robinson

Joe Kuo defended by Luka Dow

Kam Nobles layup past Eli Roberts

Ethan Feldman defended by Eli Earley

Joe Kuo goes for block against Cam Dow

OShea Bell

Robin Bodin

Stephen Basden layup

Shane Jenkins scores a crucial basket in the last minute with a backdoor cut and getting a pass from Stephen Tam.

Colton Fontaine (12 points) drives past Jimmy Campbell

(Newburyport)  Hamilton-Wenham (8-3) broke away from a 47-47 tie in the last two minutes and defeated Newburyport, 55-50, on a warm Tuesday night at Newburyport.

The Clippers (10-3) had won the December meeting between these two (45-39) at HW. In this one the home team couldn’t hold a ten-point (30-20) second quarter lead or execute very well on either end in the final two minutes and it cost them dearly.

While the Generals looked to be in deep trouble trailing by ten points in the second quarter, the Clippers looked done when they fell behind, 45-39, in the fourth quarter.  Both teams recovered nicely and turned it into an exciting two-minute game.

Freshman James Foye (10 points) opened the scoring in the “end game” with two clutch free throws.  After a Newburyport miss, Stephen Tam (12 points) dribbled around near the top of the key appearing to be intent on taking a shot.  Wrong assumption!  Shane Jenkins (9 points) made a backdoor cut and caught the Clippers napping and made a layup.  Then a Colby Morris turnover sent James Foye off for another layup.  That put the Generals ahead by six (53-47) with only twenty-eight seconds left.

Two key free throws by freshman James Foye (10 points) late

A triple by Colby Morris (11 points), assisted by Brett Fontaine, quickly had Newburyport within three with twenty-two seconds left.  After a timeout, the pressuring Clippers got the turnover they needed but just as quickly turned the ball back over to HW.  Off went Stephen Tam with the fumble for another layup and this game was over.

Tough loss for the Clippers.  This makes them 4-2 in the Cape Ann League D2 standings.  HW is now 4-1. The Generals have won the division the last two seasons.

Newburyport got that ten-point lead in the second quarter thanks to a 9-2 run over three minutes.  Colby Morris (11 points) had two assists and a triple in that surge.

It took HW 2 ½ minutes to get nine of those points back.  The killer basket in their nine straight was Jake Lindland’s desperation long one at the buzzer.  It was another case of Newburyport heavily defending Stephen Tam and last year’s CAL D2 Player of the Year finding an open teammate.

The Clippers looked cooked when HW put a 13-2 run on them during a 3-minute segment that stretched into the final quarter.  Stephen Tam scored off a turnover and added a three.  Ryan Richard came off the HW bench to contribute two baskets from in close.

Brett Fontaine (8 points) shoots over Shane Jenkins (9 points)

That 45-39 lead looked solid but four minutes later the hustling Clippers earned a 47-47 tie.  Two of the Clipper baskets were converted rebounds by Colton Fontaine (12 points) and Alex Losh (10 points).

Stephen Tam did a nice job defending Brett Fontaine.  Ian Michaels did the same defending Stephen Tam.

Ryan Willis (9 points) had three long ones for the Generals.

Colby Morris has three 3’s for Newburyport.

Senior Jake Lindland is recovering from a preseason knee injury.  His minutes have been limited so far.

Hamilton-Wenham was very content to run an offense on the perimeter looking for an opening for a long one.  The Clippers looked to get closer to the basket.

HW is 38-9 over the last 2+ seasons.

HW boxscore

Newburyport boxscore

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Stephen Tam

Jake Lindland (#3)

Brett Fontaine

Stephen Tam

Colby Morris

Ryan Beckett defends

Ian Michaels sees a lane

Steve Haladyna (10 points) closely guarded by Joel Berroa (#25 - 20 points) and Tyler Nelson (#11 - 11 points).

Lucas Hammel (11 points floats in)

(Lawrence) Central Catholic is good……..very good.

The Raiders (12-0) overwhelmed St. John’s Prep, 80-56, Sunday afternoon before a crowd that dwindled as the start of the Patriots/Ravens game neared.

It was hard tell which CC was better at, scoring or pressure defending, because they were impressive at both.

The Raiders were able to run an organized offense against a tight Eagle defense and found openings for nineteen layups.  They also hit from long range connecting on six triples.

Defensively, the combo of Joel Berroa and Lucas Hammel, kept the ball away from high-scoring Steve Haladyna.  (I saw Steve drop twenty-six on BC High on Friday night.)  In this one, his total was ten points with only two coming in the second half.

The Raiders inside players 6-4 Joel Berroa (20 points) and 6-5 Nick Cambio (16 points) produced the big numbers for the home team.  Nick hit three triples.

Mike Carbone defended by Doug Gemmell

Mike Carbone (18 points) carried the Eagles (9-3) in the second half with thirteen points.

St. John’s made a game of it for about six minutes trailing just 14-13 as Steve Haladyna got inside for three straight hoops.  Thereafter the denial defense on Steve kicked in and the Raider runs began.

A three by Luis Puello, and a couple of Lucas Hammel layups and the Raider lead jumped to ten (23-13) early in the second period.

The Eagles were able to hang around and trailed only 27-22 with 2:50 remaining in the first half.

Over the next 3:40 of playing time this game got away from the Eagles.  They searched for offense and gave up four layups and two long ones.  That nasty combo turned into a 15-2 Raider surge and CC led, 42-24, early in the second half.

Freddy Shove shoots over Nick Cambio as Coach Rick Nault watches

Central Catholic cruised along with a comfortable lead until early in the 4th quarter when their 62-45 advantage shrunk to 62-52 with six minutes left, after seven straight by the Eagles.

A timeout by CC coach Rick Nault seemed to straighten things out as all five starters scored in the next four minutes. The Raiders put a 12-1 hit on the Eagles and were in complete control 74-53.  The reserves from both sides filled out the final two minutes.

Raider coach Rick Nault picked up a technical foul in the second period.

Nick Cambio had a crowd-pleasing jam in the third quarter.

After seeing CC for the first time, it is not too difficult to imagine them playing at the Worcester Centrum in mid-March.  But on the other hand, the Raiders only beat Lawrence by two points and have a return engagement at Lawrence coming up. Let’s see how that goes first before making too many March assumptions.

Central Catholic boxscore

St. John’s Prep boxscore

(All of the pictures above and below enlarge if you click on them.)

Luis Puello shoots

sophomore Nick Cambio

Central Catholic cheerleaders

Joel Berroa surrounded by Eagles

Steve Haladyna scores

CC coach Rick Nault gets T

Freddy Shove goes up and over

Steve Haladyna (26 points) played solid defense too.

Owen Marchetti (23) and Tyler Dooley (34) chase Charles Collins (14)

(Danvers) This game was about Steve Haladyna, tight defense, and pitiful foul shooting.

Steve Haladyna (26 points) tormented Boston College High on both ends of the court and led St. John’s Prep to a 58-45 victory in Catholic Conference action on Friday night at St. John’s.

Steve’s quickness enabled him to get shots where teammates were getting shots blocked.  He also had a hand in a number of BC High turnovers on the front of the St. John’s press.  His only problem was getting his fifth foul with four minutes left but by then the home team led, 57-38, and BC High was using reserves.

The defense was end-to-end by both teams.  Double-teams were frequent and turnovers were plentiful. Driving to the basket wasn’t such a good idea either because both teams could and did reject shots.  The referees weren’t buying the drive-and-flop routine so there were more than a few ugly shots taken as the drivers hit the deck and had to scramble to get back on defense.

The foul shooting was a serious problem for one team – BC High.  They were pitiful at both ends.  How does six-for-twenty-one sound!  Two of the misses were the front ends of 1-and-1’s.  The BC takeaway from this one could well be that if they had made their free throws they could have won the game.  I’m not sure about the winning part but as the stats indicate it sure would have been a heck of a lot closer if the freebies had fallen.

Steve Haladyna layup

With just the final score, you wouldn’t realize how this game went early on.  There were seven lead changes before a Mike Carbone (9 points) triple at 4:55 of the second period gave St. John’s the lead (22-19) for good.  St. John’s built their lead to 30-21 after two Steve Haladyna free throws before BC ran six straight to trail just, 30-27, one minute into the second half.  At this point, the outcome was far from decided.

In the next ten minutes of playing time it was.  The home Eagles were all over BC to the tune of 26-9 to build a decisive twenty point lead (56-36) with five minutes left in the game.  Not surprising to those on hand, Steve Haladyna (signed with Tufts) had half of St. John’s points including 7-of-8 from the foul line.

St. John’s (9-2) avenged a loss to BC High (9-3) on January 3rd (53-47) at BC High.

Coach Sean Connolly did not start his usual starters.  Could well have had everything to do with the Eagles last-game loss.

Jameilen Jones (#13) led BC High with ten points

Jameilen Jones led BC’s scorers with ten points.

The Boston Globe had BC High ranked 2nd in their Top Twenty poll and St. John’s 9th.  That will change.

On Sunday (1:30), St. John’s travels to Lawrence to play undefeated Central Catholic.  They’re ranked #1 by the Globe.  This game might be a nice appetizer before the Patriots game.

St. John’s boxscore

Boston College High boxscore

(All the pictures above and below enlarge if you click on them.)

Justin Roberts

Freddy Shove

Oderah Obukwelu

Muigai Unaka (5) and Drex Costello (33)

Mike McAuley looks for an opening

Mike Carbone

Jameilen Jones hits 3 at end of first quarter

Joseph Kuo (18 points) puts in the game winner.

Ryan Hartung (21 points) at the foul line

(Byfield)  Phillips Academy (Andover) had three chances to tie or defeat Governor’s Academy in the final seven seconds but failed to do either losing, 56-55, at GA on Wednesday afternoon.

Ryan Hartung (21 points) had two free throws with seven seconds left and Big Blue down by one.  He had made four straight attempts in the game.  Surprisingly, he missed both in crunch time.  In the scramble for the rebound, Brendan O’Connell ended up with a shot in the lane that also missed before the ball rolled out of bounds as the game ended.

That’s how close the Govs came to losing this one.

As it turned out, the winning basket was a layup by Joseph Kuo (18 points) on a feed from Duncan Robinson (11 points) with 1:41 remaining.  As you can guess, there were plenty of “should of’s” and “could of’s” thereafter including the calamity for Andover in the last seven seconds.

GA (7-3) and Andover (5-7), in the first half, went back-and-forth with nine lead changes.  Ryan Hartung (6-5) converted a rebound at the buzzer to give Andover a 28-27 halftime advantage.

Ryan’s late hoop was part of an 11-point Blue run that ended up with them in front, 34-27, early in the second half.

Tate Jozokos (8 points) breakaway

The Govs spent most of the rest of the game closing on the Blue and then falling back.   The Blue lead went to eight (48-40) when Ryan Hartung successfully put back his own miss and later was seven (53-46) when Ryan connected on a triple assisted by Labaron Sylvester.

Ryan’s 3-pointer came with 5:20 to go.  After that?  Almost all downhill for the visitors over the last 5+ minutes.  How does two points sound???

While the Blue offense was set on cool the Govs heated up and put an 8-spot on them.  Inside work by 6-8 Joseph Kuo netted four points, and was followed by a Frank Barba jumper, and then a breakaway layup by Duncan Robinson off a Blue turnover.  Suddenly the Govs had the lead 54-53 with three minutes left.

After two missed free throws (Brendan O’Connell), Sahil Bhaiwala raced off with a breakaway layup to put Phillips Academy on top, 55-54, with two minutes remaining.

This would be PA’s last points and last lead as they suffered a frustrating loss.

Joseph Kuo and Thomas Palleschi battle

Big Thomas Palleschi (6-9/250) tallied twelve for Phillips.  His matchup with Joseph Kuo (6-8/180) was fun to watch.  In my opinion, PA didn’t work hard enough at getting the ball in to Thomas over the last part of the game – maybe Joseph’s defense had a lot to do with that.

Duncan Robinson added eleven points for the Govs and faced plenty of good defense from Ryan Hartung.

Governor’s box score

Phillip’s box score

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Ryan Hartung afterwards

Grant OBrien heads for the hoop

Duncan Robinson & Ryan Hartung

Thomas Palleschi & Tate Jozokos

Labaron Sylvester & Cam Nobles

Ryan Hartung drives

Sahil Bhaiwala looks for an opening

Beth Castantini (20 points) puts up a lefthanded layup.

Emily Freedland (8 points) defends Aly Leahy (12 points).

(Newburyport) Newburyport defeated non-league Marblehead, 43-25, thanks to dominating (16-3) final quarter on Monday (MLK Day) afternoon at NHS.

This game was as much about who didn’t play as it was about who did.  Kathryn DiGiammarino and Sydney Pliner for the Magicians and Molly Rowe for the Clippers did not play.  All three girls had injuries.

(To get a sense of the level of loss this was: Kathryn had twenty rebounds and fourteen points in Marblehead’s last game, Sydney generally defends the other team’s best player, and I saw Molly put up twenty-six points and handle the ball versus pressure against a strong Ipswich team.)

Let’s just say both coaches (Greg Dollas & Skip Likins) were looking at Plan B in this matchup.

Beth Castantini layup in traffic

How did Newburyport (8-3) win the game?  The Magicians had no answers for Beth Castantini.  The Clipper senior saw large and small defenders but never was discouraged from taking shots and putting up twenty points.  She dominated the boards and held Marblehead’s inside player (Lindsey Cohen) to a quiet four points.

Minus someone to defend Beth, the Magicians (7-5) were going to have to score a lot of points to win.

But, this is one of those games where the final score would give the wrong impression of how the game went.  That’s one of the reasons I script games……so I can sort games out for those who are interested yet couldn’t attend them.

Marblehead, despite its undermanned status, was very much in this one until the final quarter.  How?  They refused to go away.  Down 15-4, after four minutes in the second period, they put together a 12-4 response to trail just, 19-16, three minutes into the third quarter.

The Magician rally featured making eight of ten free throw attempts plus two McKenna Barrett layups.

McKenna Barrett layup

The visitors completed the comeback when a McKenna jump shot tied the score at 22-22 with only a minute to go in the third quarter.  Unfortunately, for Marblehead, the rest of the quarter shows a Beth Castantini triple, two missed free throws (Mia Bongiorno), and two Aly Leahy free throws – 27-22 after three periods.

The fourth quarter started harmlessly enough – an Emily Freedland layup and a McKenna free throw surrounded a Beth Castantini converted rebound of her own miss – 29-25 with 6:50 left.  No one on hand expected what happened the rest of the way.

Marblehead didn’t score another point while the Clippers totaled fourteen.  That’s a long time to go scoreless……and very frustrating to be on the scoreless end.  Coach Skip Likins picked up a technical near the end and was seen looking for the names of the officials afterwards.

Aly Leahy (12 points) scored seven in the final run including 3-of-4 from the foul line.

Emily Freedland was Marblehead’s top scorer with eight points.

The effects of an afternoon holiday game?  The Clippers missed five shots on their first possession and neither team scored during the first four minutes.

A key in this game was Aly Leahy’s ability to handle Marblehead pressure.  Usually she shares that responsibility with Molly Rowe.

Mark Rowe & Molly Rowe

Molly was in uniform and looked ready to play despite an icepack on her knee before the game.  Instead, she sat this one out next to her father on the NHS bench.

Newburyport’s next game is home on Friday night against North Reading.

Why is this entry so late?  Good question.  I had the opportunity to go to the Celtics reunion with Kendrick Perkins (Oklahoma City Thunder) and took it.  TNT made a game that started shortly after eight last nearly three hours.  Then the ride home……….Route 1 and 128 snowy, icy and untreated!  That resulted in an arrival time home (Newburyport) after 12:30AM.  That’s the best excuse I could think of for the delay………and I’m sticking with it!

(All the pictures above and below will enlarge if you click on them.)

Beth Castantini fouled

Lindsey Cohen shoots against Lea Tomasz

McKenna Barrett (20) & Mary Pettigrew (33)

Mia Bongiorno collides with Cady Bennett

Lindsey Cohen shoots - Casey Barlow defends.

Emily Freedland shoots free throws at the end of first half.

Caroline Helms

Tyler Wade (17 points) dives after a ball going out of bounds.

Dan OFlynn (15 points) drives - Matt Gott (#40) defends

(Ipswich) Ipswich halted a five-game losing streak with a never-trail, 61-41, win over Georgetown on Friday night at Ipswich in Cape Ann League action.

The Tigers (1-3 CAL / 2-7 overall) were quickly off 5-0 on an Erik Fyrer drive and a Louis Galanis triple and never looked back.

Ipswich boosted the lead to sixteen (37-21) three minutes into the third quarter on three straight Erik Fyrer hoops.

The Royals, however, have Tyler Wade and he led a G’Town response back into contention with an old-fashioned three, a layup, and an assist on Pat Bjork’s layup.  That run left the Royals behind, 37-28, with two minutes left in the third quarter.

The next five minutes of play should be on the Ipswich season highlight film.  Nice passes, triples, and assisted baskets all showed up as the Tigers dazzled with a 17-2 run and took the doubt out of this one, 54-30, with 4 ½ left.

Mike Scola and Dan O’Flynn handed out the assists while Brenden Gallagher registered two triples during this surge.  Brenden also brought back the Bob Cousy (or is it Rondo?) flashbacks with a behind-the-back pass that sent Dan in for a layup he was fouled on.

Louis Galanis takes a turn at shadowing Tyler Wade.

For Georgetown (0-4 CAL / 3-6 overall), it was a frustrating fourth consecutive loss.  Tyler Wade (17 points) was kept busy with a series of Tiger defenders and frequently set up teammates for shots that didn’t fall often enough.  Equally excruciating for the Royals was missing seventeen of the thirty-three free throws they took.

GHS coach Mike Rowinski’s frustration boiled over two minutes into the second half when he pulled all five starters off the floor.

I saw Ipswich in their overtime loss at Amesbury earlier.  The most improved player since then was Erik Fyrer.  The 6-4 sophomore was foul prone and frustrated at Amesbury.  In this one, he fouled less while blocking and rebounding more.  He showed a nice touch around the basket collecting twelve points.

Guard Dan O’Flynn (15 points) led the Tigers in scoring getting all his points on layups and free throws.

The two teams will meet again at Georgetown (January 30th) in a nonleague game.

Ipswich box score

Georgetown box score

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Tyler Wade (17 points)

Erik Fyrer (12 points)

Dan OFlynn shirt pull

Sam Hurst-MacDonald putback

Matt Jaeger gets two

Georgetown clears bench

Christian Gesualdi gets two

Erik Fyrer blocks Tyler Wade shot

Steve Carangelo (17 points) hits a 4th quarter three for Lynnfield

Pat Kearney (17 points) drills a three as Pioneer coach Scott MacKenzie watches

(Byfield)  The Lynnfield Pioneers blew open a close game in the fourth quarter and defeated Triton, 66-53, on Wednesday night at Triton in Cape Ann League play.

Lynnfield (5-4 overall / 3-0 in the CAL) had a tenuous, 50-48, lead with six minutes left but put a 15-2 hit on the Vikings over the next five minutes to win going away.

The primary villain in Lynnfield’s spurt was junior Steve Carangelo (17 points).  The CAL All-Star of 2010-11 registered eight unanswered points with two long ones and a layup to boost the Pioneers to a 10-point spread with 4 ½ minutes left.

There was more Lynnfield damage ahead as Kevin Gamble (13 points) scored twice in close and added a free throw while Pat Kearney (17 points) hit a jumper.  The only offense Triton had to show during all this was two Jedd Hutchins free throws.

Triton (3-5 overall / 2-1 in the CAL) had 5-point leads several times in the first quarter thanks to an old-fashioned 3-point play by Derek Paquette and later a jumper by Jedd Hutchins behind a nice double screen.

Blaise Whitman breaks away

The Vikings looked to be in serious trouble in the 3rd quarter when they trailed, 37-30, but they responded with an 11-4 run to tie the score at 41-41 with a minute left in that quarter.  A three by Jedd Hutchins (7 points) and two layups by hustling Rich Fecteau (8 points) keyed this rally.

The Pioneers pulled off some late-quarter magic in the first and third. Steve Carangelo had a steal and layup just beating the buzzer to end the first quarter.  At the end of the third quarter Triton tried to take the last shot but instead shot too early (and missed) giving lefty Pat Kearney time to can a long three from in front of the Pioneer bench at the buzzer.

Triton coach Dave Clay wasn’t shy about using his bench and ended up with ten players scoring.

Kevin Gamble (13 points) lay in

There was no fog in the Triton gym to cloud my mind but I failed to realize until later that the Kevin Gamble playing for Lynnfield and the interested parent in the crowd were connected.  Yes, it was the former Celtic Kevin Gamble.

Lynnfield made six 3’s including five in the second half.

Triton is at Rockport on Friday.

Lynnfield box score

Triton box score

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Steve Carangelo blocks Jedd Hutchins

Kevin Gamble converts Pioneer miss

Zack Alaoui layup

Ryan Clark layup

loose ball

Rich Fecteau runs at 3-point shooter Nico Varano

Steve Carangelo goes in on Mike Campbell

Effie Markopoulos breaks away from the pack.

Freshman Masey Zegarowski paced Ipswich with eighteen points.

(Byfield) No surprises here even with a full moon.

Ipswich overwhelmed very inexperienced Triton, 62-40, on Monday night at Triton in Cape Ann League action.

Triton, now 2-6 overall and 0-2 in the Cape Ann League, has lost five straight.  Four of those losses have been by twenty points or more.  Beyond Jessica Canning (18 points) and Lauren Batter ton (9 points), this team is new to the varsity level of girls basketball.

Ipswich, 7-1 overall and 1-1 in the CAL, was a nightmare opponent for Triton having plenty of experienced players and motivation after a tough loss last game to Newburyport.

The Tigers crafted a seven-point run late in the first quarter into the start of the second quarter, and pulled away, 18-9.  Free throws by Brigid O’Flynn and Masey Zegarowski (18 points) started the streak.  A Julia Davis (12 points) layup (pass from Nyra Constant) and a Masey steal and layup finished it.

The Vikings found enough offense (several Jessica Canning baskets) to stay competitive (20-15) until 4:15 of the second quarter.

The rest of the half Ipswich played like the team that came in 6-1 and mixes an inside and outside offense as well as effective pressure defense.  It all clicked for the Tigers for the rest of the half and they put up twenty unanswered points to run away, 40-15, at halftime.

Jessica Canning (18 points) in Ipswich traffic

During this strong run, Ipswich made 3’s (Masey Zegarowski & Nyra Constant), got Julia Davis going inside (2 baskets), and turned turnovers into layups down the other end.  Impressive all-around display.

The second half was perfect for Ipswich coach Mandy Zegarowski because, with a big game ahead on Wednesday at home with Masconomet, she could rest the players who will be getting the long minutes versus the Chieftains.

It also worked well for Triton coach Karen Christian because her team could have some positive moments in the second half.  One impressive Viking was Jessica Canning.  She has a good outside shot.

2010-11 CAL All-Star Shannon McFayden took the opening tip in for an easy layup and never scored again in limited minutes.  Her offense will be needed against Masco.

Triton travels to Lynnfield on Wednesday.

Ipswich box score

Triton box score

(The pictures above and below enlarge if you click on them.)

Molly Markos shoots

Lauren Batterton layup

Courtney Eramo shoots in Triton traffic

Coach Mandy Zegarowski & Coach Karen Christian

Jordan Morrissey layup

Lauren Batterton

Natalie Soliozy shoots