BOXFORD — Too much height. Too many shooters. Too much energy on defense and way too big of a hole to climb out of.
Or, to boil it down to three words, too much Masconomet.
The host Chieftains used their depth, advantage on the glass and star power to muscle their way past Beverly, 69-51, in a Northeastern Conference boys basketball showdown Friday night.
Senior Jamason Vella had one of his best games in a Masconomet uniform with 21 points and more than a dozen rebounds. He took over the scoring in the second half as the Chieftains (now 7-1) never allowed the Panthers (6-3) to climb within single digits in the fourth quarter.
“We had a good first half, but we knew in the second half we could be even better,” said Vella. “We also knew Beverly would push us, so we’d have to be better.”
Student fans from both schools were barred from the game by Masconomet’s administration after inappropriate social media posts that were described as “vulgar, offensive and degrading” were brought to the school’s attention late in the week. The gym was far from empty, however, with family members, recent graduates and general basketball fans gathered to watch two of the top 20 teams in Massachusetts do battle.
“If anything, the fan situation should have been a disadvantage for Masco,” noted Beverly head coach Matt Karakoudas. “But it wasn’t. Not with the way we played.”
The first half belonged to Chieftain senior guard Jimmy Farrell, who scored 16 of his 20 points in the first 16 minutes of action. After a back-and-forth first quarter that saw six lead changes, Farrell’s pull-up game got hot and helped spark an 8-0 run to put the hosts in front in the first. Then, a 23-7 second frame gave the Chieftains control.
The bench was a major factor since Jack Arnold canned three triples. Back-to-bac 3-balls by Ryan Richardson and Thomas Denton pushed it to 15 by halftime, 39-22.
“We take a lot of pride in our defense and in our depth,” said Farrell.
Beverly locked in defensively to start the third quarter, causing Masconomet some problems and making enough shots to cut the gap to seven points. Eli Landman (team-high 11) made a couple of big shots in that stretch, but a slam by Vella and a dagger 3-ball by Arnold sent the Masco lead back to 12 and the Panthers couldn’t recover.
“With a team like (Masco), there’s always going to be that put-back to stop a run,” said Matt Karakoudas. “We weren’t scoring the ball at a high clip and in a grind it out game, you can’t get behind by double digits in someone else’s gym.”
Star guard Jacob Klass scored 10 for the Panthers and Danny Pierce had nine. Not helping the Panther cause was that having an off-shooting night plus the Chieftains superior size allowed the hosts to clean up the glass.
“We don’t match up well with them,” said Karakoudas. “But they didn’t just beat us with X’s and O’s. They beat the stuffing out of us, physically and mentally.”
It was the 19th straight win in Northeastern Conference play for Masconomet and the 14th straight home win.
“We’ve been undefeated at home since last year,” Vella noted, “and we want to keep it that way.”
Defensively, Matteo Stefanelli gave the Chieftains some huge minutes and Cal Weidman and John Green were effective both helping off the ball and sticking with their men. Overall, Masconomet held a team as talented as the Panthers to 18 field goals and a season low 51 points.
“Most of our practices are spent on defense,” Farrell said. “Coach is always saying that if we’re tired, someone else can come in and put in that defensive energy. We have so many guys that we believe in and it means we never take a possession off.”
Denton finished with 11 for the Chieftains. For Beverly, Andrew Bragance scored nine and Dom Paniello had a block plus four points. With two straight Friday night NEC setbacks (last week against Salem), the Panthers will look to regroup ahead of facing unbeaten Lowell Sunday night at TD Garden.
“We have three losses to top 20 teams, so it’s not like we’re having terrible games,” said Karakoudas. “At the same time, we have very high expectations. And we’re not living up to them at the moment.”
Masconomet 69, Beverly 51
at Masconomet HS, Boxford
Beverly;15;7;12;17;51
Masconomet;16;22;10;20;69
Individual scoring
Beverly: Klass 3-4-10, Braganca 3-2-9, Landman 4-1-11, Panniello 1-1-4, Pierce 4-0-9, Doughty 1-0-2, Ulrich 1-0-3, Panda 1-0-3, Downey 0-0-0, Patterson 0-0-0. Totals 18-8-51.
Masconomet: Farrell 9-2-20, Weidman 1-0-3, Denton 4-2-11, Richardson 1-0-3, Vella 10-1-21, Green 0-0-0, Arnold 3-0-9, Linehan 1-0-2, Pinelli 0-0-0, Karas 0-0-0, Doherty 0-0-0, Stefanelli 0-0-0 Totals 29-5-69.
Three-pointers: B, Landman 2, Braganca, Panda, Paniello, Ulrich, Pierce; M, Arnold 3, Denton, Weidman, Richardson.
Halftime score: M, 39-22.
Records: B, 6-3; M, 7-1.