SOUTH HAMILTON — In January of last season, Hamilton-Wenham put an end to rival Manchester Essex’s 40-game Cape Ann League winning streak.
Needless to say, the Hornets have been waiting a long time for the rematch — and it finally came Monday night back in South Hamilton.
This time around, in front of a packed and festive crowd, Manchester came to play. The visitors got hot late in the first, clamped down defensively for four full quarters, and cruised to a convincing 63-45 victory.
It was about as textbook a performance as Hornets’ head coach Tim St. Laurent and his staff could have asked for, one that will send them into a well deserved holiday break with confidence.
“It was a great win in a tough place to play,” said St. Laurent, his team remaining unbeaten at 4-0. “Last time we were in this gym they broke our streak (and) the guys remembered that, I remembered that. Just really happy with the effort tonight.”
On paper, the two CAL powers match up pretty well. Both teams have size down low and shifty playmakers at the guard positions, and both pride themselves on defense.
On this night, however, it was Manchester’s defense that won out.
The Hornets utilized a deep bench, staying fresh all evening by rotating guys in and out of the lineup throughout. They played physical against the Generals’ slew of capable athletes, fronting dribble penetration, blocking off cutters in the lane, and rotating beautifully within their matchup zone look to make things difficult for the hosts all evening.
Luke Molitano was able to get going a bit, finishing with a game-high 21 points for H-W. But outside of him, nobody was really able to find the bottom of the net.
The Generals managed just 13 total field goals, and while they got to the line a whopping 25 times, they connected on just 14 of them.
That — along with some timely shot making from the Hornets — led to Manchester leads of 22-11 after one, 36-21 at halftime and 53-28 after three.
“It was our gameplan to find (Alex Menegoni) in the zone and make his life hell,” said St. Laurent, his team holding Menegoni to just one bucket, a triple in the fourth quarter when the game was already in hand.
“He’s an elite scorer and I thought we did a good job of finding him and then we just rotated really well tonight,” continued the coach. “The two most important things we had on the board going into this one were to move the ball and rotate and find the cutters. We did a fantastic job of it tonight.”
While everyone — from the starters down to the end of the bench — did their jobs defensively, it remained the Alex Ste. Marie and Graham Lewis show on the other end.
Lewis (21 points) got hot early, sparking a 15-0 Hornets’ run by dropping in 10 first quarter points including a deep triple to help break things open. Ste. Marie (20 points) did most of his damage in the third with 10 points of his own in that frame.
“I thought our defense was terrible,” H-W coach Nick DiMarino said bluntly. “I thought we came out hard, we were setting the tone early, but it didn’t last long.
“Graham (Lewis) had his little flurry in the first quarter, Ste. Marie had his flurry in the third quarter, and obviously when a team has two players like that you can’t give up any flurries, let alone two.”
Lewis in particular really impressed with his jump shots. Whether he was pulling up off the dribble for a fadeaway middie or uncorking one from deep, the junior guard was simply playing with confidence and trusting his work. He added a couple of aggressive drives to the rack as well, truly displaying his complete offensive arsenal in the win.
Ste. Marie, meanwhile, showed off some terrific footwork on the baseline and in the paint, freeing himself with regularity for high percentage bunnies.
“I said to Graham at halftime, ‘I think you can attack and score every single time you touch the ball tonight’,” said St. Laurent. “And it’s tough to send help against us because the rest of the players are very good and you got that drop down to Ste. (Marie). So it’s very tough to send help, especially when we’re playing so well as a team like tonight.”
Lewis splashed home a pull-up triple in the third to open up a 25-point lead for his team and it was all cosmetic from there. The Hornets held Hamilton to just seven points in that decisive third.
Jacob Zachareas added three made threes in the win while Jake Zschau chipped in seven points and one loud block. The Hornets got contributions from everyone that came into the game, including big men Joe Glass and Parker Woodman, versatile starter Zach Hurd, and back-up point guard Jack McCavanagh.
On the other side, Caden Schrock was the lone other General to reach double figures with 11. DiMarino also singled out the defense of Gus Tratnyek in the loss.
“I thought Gus played the defense we all needed to play tonight. He was the standout,” said DiMarino.
Manchester Essex 63, Hamilton-Wenham 45
at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School
Manchester Essex;22;14;17;10;63
Hamilton-Wenham;11;10;7;17;45
Individual statistics
Manchester Essex — Graham Lewis 9-1-21, Alex Ste. Marie 8-4-20, Jacob Zachareas 3-0-9, Jake Zschau 3-0-7, Jack McCavanagh 1-0-2, Joe Glass 1-0-2, Zach Hurd 1-0-2. Totals: 26-5-63.
Hamilton-Wenham — Luke Molitano 7-4-21, Caden Schrock 2-6-11, Ben Fillipov 1-2-4, Gus Tratnyek 1-2-4, Alex Menegoni 1-0-3, Charlie Byers 1-0-2. Totals: 13-14-45.
Halftime: 36-21, Manchester Essex
3-pointers: M, Zachareas 3, Lewis 2; H-W, Molitano 3, Menegoni, Schrock.