You would think in our high school basketball landscape, it’d be pretty tough to improve upon a 21.4 points per game scoring average.
But don’t tell that to Parker DeLong.
The Amesbury senior and returning Daily News All-Star is having a fantastic start to the season, and he poured in 28 more points on Friday night to lead his team to a 71-59 win over Triton. Which, that’s now two straight victories for Justin Dube, Ollie Peters, Joe Celia and the Redhawks (2-4), who seem to have found something after a rough start to the winter.
Meanwhile on the other side, Triton was led by 14 points from Bryan Dos Santos and 10 each from Noah Bernier and Cam McDonald. The Vikings (0-8) fell in a lopsided, 30-point game against the Redhawks last year, so Friday’s much more competitive outing was a step in the right direction.
NEWBURYPORT: Both boys and girls extend winning streaks
When Cal Atherton is on, pretty much nobody in the league can stop him.
The latest example of that fact came on Friday night, when the senior and two-time Daily News All-Star was unstoppable with 35 points to lead Newburyport to an 82-71 road win over Ipswich. Atherton hit four 3s during the explosion, and elsewhere it was Zayd Leanna adding 21 points, Ben Cormier chipping in 10 points and Tyler Lisauskas adding 9 points.
The undefeated Clippers (7-0) are up in Division 2 this year, but still came in with a solid ranking in the initial MIAA power poll at No. 11.
Meanwhile, the Newburyport girls extended their winning streak to four with a 53-31 blowout victory over Peabody. Ava Bailey led the way with 15 points, both Morgan Rouba and Clara Thompson had 9 points, and Christina Corneau chipped in 7 points.
The Clippers (6-3) came in at No. 23 in the first Division 2 power rankings.
PENTUCKET: Double-double from Walsh leads girls to win
At this point, it’s safe to say that the Bridgewater-Raynham girls are sick of playing Pentucket.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that the two programs met in the third-place game of the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic, with the Panthers winning that one, 47-37. But the two also had another non-league matchup scheduled on Saturday in West Newbury, and the Panthers once again came out on top by nearly the exact same score, 46-37.
Out in front for the home team was junior Devyn Walsh, who scored a team-high 13 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds for the double-double. Chloe Dancewicz added 9 points and Amelia Crowe had 7 points for the Panthers (7-2), who found themselves ranked No. 8 in the initial MIAA Division 3 rankings. The win was also the 399th for legendary coach John McNamara, who can hit 400 when his Panthers travel to Triton on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, captains Damon Holbrook, Gavin Jalbert, Michael Torrisi and the Pentucket boys also got a nice 60-47 win over Rockport on Friday night. The Panthers (2-8) are ranked No. 66 in the first Division 3 rankings, so they have some work to do to get themselves back in the playoff picture.
GEORGETOWN: Back to defensive basics helps Zapata (20 pts), boys smother Gloucester
Thankfully, the problems for the Georgetown boys during their four-game skid were easy to diagnose.
“We had a ton of defensive breakdowns during our losing streak,” said coach Kevin Fair. “But we had two great practices after the Lynnfield game, and we got back to basics and focused on our commitment to being a connected team on defense.”
And, yeah, that work showed itself on Friday night.
Georgetown made the trip over for a non-league game against Gloucester, and absolutely smothered the hosts to come away with a 74-37 victory. Irvin Zapata led the way offensively with 20 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3, and as a team the Royals (5-4) went 8-for-13 from beyond the arc. Jomar Terrero had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, Brendan Loewen chipped in 10 points with 5 assists, Meziah Hernandez posted his second straight game in double figures with 11 points, and point guard Rayner Hernandez had 6 assists with no turnovers.
Despite the recent slide, the defending Division 4 champs still saw themselves sitting at No. 8 in the initial MIAA rankings — which is easy to believe seeing as their four losses are to Lowell (No. 16 in D1), Attleboro (No. 10 in D1), Natick (No. 36 in D1) and Lynnfield (No. 17 in D3). The Royals have a huge one on Tuesday, though, when they welcome in an archrival Manchester Essex team that is currently ranked one spot above them at No. 7.