NORTH ANDOVER — There’s of course a lot for any high school basketball team to gain whenever it steps onto a court and chooses to compete.
But for Newburyport Wednesday night, there really wasn’t much to lose.
When it comes to boys basketball at the state level, Lawrence — out of the Merrimack Valley — has always been a title contender and a mecca of the sport. The Lancers were the No. 2 seed in the Division 1 state tournament a year ago, and were a point away from making it to the semifinals before falling to Newton North.
And when it comes to success in the popular Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic tournament, forget about it.
Lawrence is the defending champion from a year ago, and its coach, Jesus Moore, is undefeated in it both as a player, and now as the program’s head man year’s later. So there was good reason why the Lancers were chosen as the No. 1 seed heading into this year’s tourney, and truth be told, not many gave the No. 8 Clippers that much of a shot in Wednesday’s opening round.
Hence, nothing to lose.
But Newburyport certainly didn’t play like an underdog.
The Clippers enjoyed a slim lead heading into halftime, and had it as close as a four-point game with just over 90 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But in true championship fashion, Lawrence and star senior Joendy Rosario (28 points) were clutch down the stretch, and the Lancers were able to survive and advance past an opening scare from the Clippers, 66-58, to keep their hopes of a repeat CMCC tourney title alive.
“We played hard, and we got these great performances from a bunch of people,” said Newburyport coach Mark Elmendorf, now in his second year with the program. “(Lawrence) is good. They do things that we weren’t used to until the game started, but I thought we played hard and we played well.”
The respect was mutual between the two teams.
“(Newburyport) is very good,” said Rosario. “They played two games and were averaging 90 points, so I knew they were coming in hot.”
So, sure, it wasn’t the end result that the Clippers wanted.
But to hang with a team like Lawrence (4-1) for the whole game, and have a program with that pedigree on the ropes until the final buzzer, truly speaks volumes about what Newburyport could achieve as the winter season rolls on. The Clippers (2-1) came into the CMCC with two blowout wins over Essex Tech and Rockport under their belts, and a sixth straight CAL Kinney title in their sights longterm. Now also throw in the fact that the program has moved down to Division 3 this year, and you can start adding some state tourney prospects into the season-long predictions.
That, however, is talk for another day.
As far as Wednesday night was concerned, a Finn Brennan runner at the buzzer gave Newburyport a shocking, 27-25, lead heading into halftime. The 6-foot-4 forward is a returning Daily News All-Star from a year ago, and co-led the Clippers — alongside Sam Craig — with 14 points before fouling out with just under two minutes left. Brennan would then open the third with a pretty pull-up jumper from the foul line, and a Cal Atherton transition layup had the Clippers up 36-32 midway through the quarter.
But that’s when Rosario took over.
The lightning-quick shooting guard dropped 11 points during the frame, and scored from wherever he wanted to on the court. He stepped back and hit one of his three 3s on the night, connected on a J from the baseline, and converted a handful of tough layups through contact to put Lawrence up 45-43 heading into the final eight minutes.
“He’s tough,” said Elmendorf. “He’s as good of a player that I’ve seen in a while. I don’t even know what year he is, but I saw him play the other night against Lowell and I was like ‘Woah!’ He’s just very, very good. But they’ve got a nice overall team in general.”
On the other side, though, Craig was also excellent for Newburyport.
Fresh off a breakout season on the gridiron as a wide receiver — which surely gave the junior a boost of confidence — Craig always came through when the Clippers needed a bucket Wednesday night. On multiple occasions during the fourth quarter, Lawrence had the lead as high as eight, but Craig would always respond with a bucket. He connected on back-to-back contested jumpers from the foul line, and an Atherton (11 points) layup cut it to 55-53.
But Lawrence always had an answer.
Adriel Vasquez immediately responded with a 3 to push the lead back up to 58-53, and Obbie Luciano (17 points) converted an and-1, and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. A fellow returning Daily News All-Star in Carson Gretz (13 points) hit a clutch 3 for Newburyport to cut it to 62-58 with 1:32 left, but the Lancers quickly responded with a layup on the other end.
“We responded to the adversity a bunch of times, I thought,” said Elmendorf. “We were down 6 or 8 a couple of times there and we came back, but (Lawrence’s) athleticism just beat us over. Sam Craig I thought was great for us, and I really thought everyone played great. Finn fouling out really hurt us, but it is what it is.”
The Clippers will now play St. John’s Prep in the consolation bracket on Thursday with a 3:15 p.m. tip.
Lawrence 66, Newburyport 58
CMCC First Round
Newburyport (58): Sam Craig 7-0-14, Cal Atherton 5-0-11, Zayd Leanna 2-1-6, Connor Spinney 0-0-0, Finn Bennan 5-4-14, Carson Gretz 5-0-13. Totals 24-5-58
Lawrence (66): Joendy Rosario 10-5-28, Courage Agbekpornu 1-0-2, Jonathan Perez 0-0-0, Joan Vidal 1-1-3, Adriel Vasquez 2-0-6, Aiden Torres 0-0-0, Lenin Diaz 0-0-0, Obbie Luciano 5-7-17, Brown Kouhiko 1-0-2, Igor Gonzalez 3-2-8. Totals 23-15-66
3-pointers: L — J. Rosario 3, A. Vasquez 2; N — Gretz 3, Atherton, Leanna
Newburyport (2-1): 11 16 16 15 — 58
Lawrence (4-1): 13 12 20 21 — 66