NEWBURYPORT — Sometimes, these first round games can be the most tricky for the heavy favorties.
For most of them they’ve barely lost during the regular season, and there’s a certain expectation when you see seeds of, say, a “9” and a “24” heading into a matchup. If the underdog can just keep it close heading into the final quarter — heck, maybe even just until halftime — that doubt, that fear of having your terrific season end early, starts to creep in for the home team.
But, yeah … that wasn’t the case for the Newburyport boys.
It was a workman-like, blue collar performance from the No. 9 Clippers on Saturday night, who got up early and cruised to an 86-61 blowout over No. 24 Somerset Berkley in the opening round of the Division 2 state tournament. As expected, Cal Atherton was excellent once again in what could very well be his final home game, pouring in a game-high 31 points on seven 3s for his fifth 30-point outing of the season.
“Yeah it was a good win for sure,” said Atherton, who now has 520 total points on the season and is averaging 24.8 ppg. “And it was much-needed I think, because we just had a tough loss against St. Mary’s (in the Spartans Classic final). So it was nice to see everyone and the team bounce back tonight.”
It was just an impressive team performance from start to finish.
Not the least of which being because Newburyport (19-2) is now unfortunately without center Ben Cormier for the rest of the season. The star senior was averaging 13.6 ppg with 34 3s this year, but sadly he broke his ankle against Greater Lawrence in the opening round of the Spartans Classic.
But no Cormier, no problem.
The Clippers still have plenty of talent on this roster to make a run, and in the first quarter it was layups from Atherton, Zayd Leanna and Tyler Lisauskas (x2) getting the team out to a quick 8-0 lead. The sophomore Lisauskas (6 rebs) scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half, and the Clippers then got three 3s from Brady Kebler and a triple from Greg Guckenburg to take a 37-22 lead into halftime.
“Tyler was phenomenal in the beginning of the game,” said Newburyport coach Mark Elmendorf. “Then Greg Guckenburg also played a great game. Then, yeah, we’re just so fortunate to have both Zayd and Cal. They just are both really, really good. But at the beginning of the game, I thought Tyler was immense.”
And coming out of the break, Atherton took over.
The senior captain made sure there was no outside comeback attempt from Somerset Berkley (13-8), draining five 3s and finishing with 17 points in the quarter alone. Even the “heat checks” from 25-plus feet were going in for Atherton, who helped the Clippers essentially put the game away at 64-37 heading into the fourth.
“I just got in a zone,” said Atherton. “A couple went in, and I just kind of felt like I had to keep shooting.”
Did anything happen in the locker room at halftime to spark the run?
“You don’t have to talk to Cal,” said Elmendorf. “It’s just so funny, he’s just a scorer. When he gets going, you just let him go. Sometimes he gets a little too carried away, but he was terrific. I was more concerned about the silly fouls he committed.”
True, the only mistake Atherton made was picking up his fourth foul late in the third quarter, which forced him to sit most of the fourth before checking back in and draining his seventh 3 for the 30-bomb. The Clippers will need him on the court if they want to continue advancing in the tournament, but in his absence, Leanna (16 pts, 8 rebs) took over in the fourth before the bench handled the final few minutes.
Newburyport will now have to make the long drive out to face No. 8 Chicopee in the Round of 16, with that game tipping off at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night. And in speaking to the theme at the beginning of this article, Chicopee (18-4) needed double-OT to beat No. 25 Melrose in its first round game.
“It was a great game, I thought we played well tonight,” said Elmendorf. “But like I just said to he kids, I just want to keep playing as long as possible. And we get to play again, so I’m happy about that.”
Newburyport 86, Somerset Berkley 61
Division 2 First Round
Somerset-Berkley (61): Ryan Crook 3-0-7, Aidan Dookhran 5-2-12, Ben Louro 0-0-0, Caden Rheaume 4-2-11, Dominic Taylor 9-3-24, Brayden Kitchen 0-1-1, Owen Lambert 0-2-2, J.J. Cort 1-0-2, Nick Tinkham 1-0-2. Totals 23-10-61
Newburyport (86): Tyler Lisauskas 6-3-15, Greg Guckenburg 2-0-5, Cal Atherton 12-0-31, Thomas Thoreson 1-0-2, Zayd Leanna 7-2-16, Brady Kebler 3-0-9, Greg D’Ambrosio 0-0-0, Kian Markos 1-0-3, Carter Scott 0-0-0, Shea Cook 0-2-2, Ben Warnat 0-0-0, Ben Howshan 1-0-3, Ryan Downey 0-0-0, Nolan Winters 0-0-0. Totals 33-7-86
3-pointers: N — Atherton 7, Kebler 3, Guckenburg, Markos, Howshan; SB — Taylor 3, Crook, Rheaume
Somerset-Berkley (13-8): 13 9 15 24 — 61
Newburyport (19-2): 17 20 27 22 — 86