WEST NEWBURY — Take care of the basketball, and it will take care of you.
A simple concept, but one that the Georgetown boys basketball team struggled following during the first half of Monday’s game at Pentucket. Of course, the stiffling defense of its opponent played a role in the miscues. But over the opening 16 minutes, the Royals were a bit too sloppy with the ball on offense, and committed more than a handful of unnecessary turnovers.
So in a weird way, that made the halftime “adjustments” from Georgetown coach Josh Keitly pretty simple.
Just hold on to the ball!
Which is exactly what his team was able to do after the break. Senior captain Jackson Lasquade had another dominant night with 27 points, and Georgetown only committed four turnovers over the second half to eventually pull away for the 60-44 win over Pentucket. It was the third straight double-digit victory in a row for the Royals (7-3), who have clearly put an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball since a loss to archrival Manchester-Essex two weeks ago.
During this three-game stretch, opponents are averaging just 40.3 ppg.
“I think we’ve just all been buying into our roles,” said Lasquade. “We’ve kind of formed a new identity to our team, where we’re going to be the hardest-working team out there. In practice, it’s just been a different level of energy every day. I think coach preaches that, too, if you’re not the hardest worker, you’re not going to play. So all of us have that mindset whenever we practice that we need to be the hardest-working kid on the court.”
That sentiment was echoed by fellow senior captain Noah Rosario: “We played good defense today. We were flying around and everyone was doing their jobs.”
The cleaner, more precise play from Georgetown in the second half of course helped.
But Pentucket (2-7) certainly didn’t make anything easy.
It was only a 15-15 game late in the second quarter when the Royals ended the first half on a 6-0 run. Junior Brady Kent opened the third with a pair of 3s and Lasquade scored 11 of his points during the frame, but Pentucket wouldn’t let its visitors pull away so quickly. The Panthers got a huge and-1 from Steven Harper, Matt Pipan (12 pts) drilled a step-back 3, and Dylan Scott swished a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to make it a tie game at 37-37 heading to the fourth.
Eventually, though, Georgetown’s depth and athleticism proved too much.
The Royals opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run and never looked back, getting a 3 and a layup from Brendan Loewen (9 pts) and a floater from Marcos Yones (8 pts). You also had a freshman in Jomar Terrero (6 pts) give quality minutes, and Jalen Andujar played a major role in the team’s press that forced the Panthers into a handful of turnovers during the final frame. The Royals have routinely utilized a deep bench all year, and that’s even with junior sharpshooter Jack Duggan having been out with an injury since early on, and the team’s final senior captain, Carter Lucido, shutting his season down early with a knee to focus on getting ready for baseball season.
Heading into Monday’s game, the Royals had eight players averaging at least 4.5 ppg.
“It’s very useful, it’s a great thing to have a lot of depth,” said Lucido. “We trust a lot of guys. In the past, we’ve been a very top-heavy team. But when you can play a lot of guys from the bench and trust a lot of guys, it makes us a lot more versatile.”
Scoring-wise, Pentucket was led on Monday by senior captain Peter Hart and his 14 points. Trevor Cloutier, Max Cloutier and Colby Eckholt also played well for the Panthers, who will travel to play Newburyport on Friday.
Georgetown 60, Pentucket 44
Georgetown (60): Jackson Lasquade 12-5-27, Brendan Loewen 2-4-9, Marcos Yones 4-0-8, Brady Kent 2-0-6, Jalen Andujar 1-2-4, Jomar Terrero 3-0-6, Noah Rosario 0-0-0. Totals 24-11-60
Pentucket (44): Matt Pipan 4-0-12, Dylan Scott 2-2-8, Peter Hart 4-6-14, Colby Eckholt 1-0-2, Max Cloutier 0-2-2, Trevor Cloutier 1-1-3, Steven Harper 1-1-3, Nate Stys 0-0-0, Tedy Cloutier 0-0-0. Totals 13-12-44
3-pointers: G — Kent 2, Loewen; P — Pipan 4, Scott 2
Georgetown (7-3): 11 10 16 23 — 60
Pentucket (2-7): 8 7 22 7 — 44