Thankfully for the Amesbury girls, a tough stretch of the schedule is now in the rearview mirror.
With Georgetown, Hamilton-Wenham, Newburyport and North Reading all on the docket over the past few weeks, the Redhawks had struggled a bit against that brass and dropped four of their last five. But thanks to a trio of double-digit scorers on Friday night, the Redhawks were able to right the ship with a comfortable victory over Manchester-Essex, 60-42.
A pair of “young guns” continued their fantastic seasons. Sophomore Ellison Talbot led the Redhawks (6-5) with 19 points, while freshman Olivia McKay hit a pair of 3s and finished with 18 points. Finally, senior captain Ellie Marden connected on three triples and chipped in 10 points.
TRITON: Dupuis, Burrell lead girls over Lynnfield
The Triton girls are starting to figure it out.
With only two seniors on the roster and plenty of turnover from a year ago, this young team’s slow start to the season wasn’t a big surprise. But following a 40-30 victory over Lynnfield on Friday night, the Vikings have now won three of their past four games.
Junior guard Mia Dupuis hit a 3 and finished with 10 points, and sophomore Bella Burrell had her best career game for the Vikings (4-6) with 10 points as well. Senior captain Margaret Welch (10 pts) was the team’s third double-digit scorer, and Lily D’Andrea chipped in 6 points.
For the boys, Triton had a rough bus ride home on Friday.
Liam Friis continued his torrid run with 18 more points on four 3s, but the Vikings fell behind early and were lapped by a good Lynnfield squad, 67-40. Jason Holscher chipped in 9 points for the Vikings (6-5), and Mateus Pinto hit a 3 and added 7 points.
NEWBURYPORT: Leanna leads Clippers to 30-point win over Pentucket
This one was over pretty quick.
Newburyport wasted no time jumping out to a double-digit lead after the first quarter, and was basically in cruise control the rest of the night in a 68-38 road win over Pentucket. Leading the way offensively for the Clippers (10-1) was Cal Atherton with 19 points on a pair of 3s, but fellow junior Zayd Leanna also had a strong with with 17 points on three triples. Carson Gretz was the third Clipper in double figures with 11 points, and Ben Corneau had a solid night with 7 points.
For Pentucket (2-8), Dylan Scott had 9 points and both Matt Pipan and Chase Dowling finished with 8 points.
GEORGETOWN: Zapata still shooting the lights out; Girls dominate
Irvin Zapata is on quite the heater for the Georgetown boys.
During Friday night’s win over Ipswich, 56-37, the junior finished with a team-high 19 points on six 3s. He’s now made 14 combined triples over the team’s last three games, a stretch where he’s averaging 17.7 ppg. The Royals (6-2) only led by seven late in the third quarter, but would finish the game on a 17-2 run to close out the win.
Jalen Andujar was also in double figures with 11 points, and Jomar Terrero was right behind with 8 points. Up next for Georgetown is Monday’s showdown at Newburyport (6:30 p.m.).
For the Georgetown girls, it was an easy night at the office.
Tayla Mariani hit three 3s and finished with 17 points, outscoring Ipswich all by herself to lift the Royals to a 49-11 victory. Junior forward Katie Davies was right behind with 10 points, Victoria Barbarick chipped in 6 points, and Avery Upite hit a 3 and had 5 points.