WESTFORD – Before Christmas, the Haverhill High boys’ basketball team was winless in five attempts.
After the short break, things were not going to get any easier for the Hillies in the 47th annual Greater Lowell IAABO 95 Holiday Tournament with the likes of three-time champion Pinkerton Academy, Lowell, — which already defeated the Hillies by 13 points — and other strong teams such as Pelham and Leominster.
The message from first-year head coach Sean Bryan: win two-out-of-three-games.
And that’s just what happened.
After posting wins over Groton-Dunstable and host Westford Academy, the Hillies took on undefeated Lowell in Monday night’s championship game. This time instead of losing by double-digits, the Hillies trailed by a point with 43 seconds left, but two straight turnovers led the Red Raiders to six points to come away with the 74-67 victory.
“With Lowell in it and Leominster is a really good team, we knew that we had to win two of the three games here just to get us back on track,” said Bryan. “Our next two games are Malden Catholic and then Lowell again, so we’re not shying away from competition. I’m hoping by the end of the regular season that we are playing our best basketball and if we’re fortunate enough to get into the state tournament, that we would be a scary team to play early on.”
Certainly the Hillies are a scary team. Haverhill is extremely athletic, can push the ball up the floor and have three or four players who can all attack the rim and shoot from the outside.
Haverhill built a six-point lead in the first quarter, but Lowell closed it out on an 11-3 run and the game was tied at 23. The Red Raiders led by seven at half and six after the third quarter. Haverhill cut it to two with just under six minutes to go, before trailing by eight with 2:01 remaining, but baskets from Jonzel Contreras (14 points) and then a pair including a three-pointer from Jonathan Matombo (17 points) cut it to one with the 43 seconds left.
“We should have won. We should have stuck in a few more baskets. Our body language stinks,” said Saul Cruz Matias, who was named to the all-tournament team. “Overall it was a good game for us. We started the season out 0-5 and now we’re 2-6. It’s good. We’re doing a lot better now and we’re improving.”
Bryan said that the body language can certainly improve, among other things.
“The biggest thing that we’re trying to teach our guys is Haverhill in the past were used to losing basketball games and being OK with losing,” said Bryan. “We talk about it all of the time that it’s really hard to win but it’s really easy to lose. It’s real easy to say ‘I’m done playing and we’ll just go on to the next game’. We’re trying to build a fight in these kids, we’re trying to change the body language and change the mentality that basketball is never going to be perfect. When the good is good but when things are bad, we need to come together even more.”
Lowell 74, Haverhill 67
Haverhill: Parker DiNatale 1-0-2, Francis Lopez 1-0-2, Saul Cruz Matias 6-1-14, Alejandro Ireheta 5-1-11, Jonzel Contreras 6-0-14, Jonathan Matombo 6-4-17, Hunter Blais 3-0-7. Totals: 28-6-67.
Lowell: Kemai 6-0-13; Powell-Aparacio 8-3-20, Jack Soucy 4-0-8, Collin Christiansen 6-3-17, Julius Richardson 7-1-16. Totals: 31-7-74.
Halftime: Lowell 39-32. 3-Pointers: Haverhill, Contreras 2; Cruz Matias 1, Matombo; Lowell, Christiansen 2, Kemai, Powell-Aparacio, Richardson.