ANDOVER — Five days ago, Dave Fazio might have signed on the dotted line for a 1-1 guaranteed split this week.
Don’t ask him now.
On Friday night before a packed house, Fazio’s Golden Warriors completed a scintillating sweep of a pair of Division 1 powers, surging to the top of the Merrimack Valley Conference at the midpoint of the regular season.
Fresh off of taking down Lawrence High on Tuesday, the Warriors held off the top-rated team in the state, North Andover, here at Dunn Gym, 65-64.
“No. 1, we’re selfless. What a bunch of selfless kids. and No. 2, we are relentless. No. 3, we’re fearless,” said Fazio. “We’re playing so hard and so tough and so fearless and so relentless. It’s enjoyable to watch.”
In a battle that saw Andover lead by a dozen, 53-41, early in the fourth quarter, the Warriors got pushed to the limit in the final seconds.
Knight guard Zach Wolinski’s first hoop of the fourth, an acrobatic layin through traffic, with 5:32 left pushed him to the 1,000-point plateau.
It also helped ignite a furious North Andover rally, down the stretch. He added nine more in a 25-point effort, and the Knights, down 65-62, actually had two decent long-range looks to tie in the final seconds only to see them carom off. Niko Catalano’s rebound hoop with a little over three seconds left accounted for the final one-point margin, but without timeouts, time ran out on the Christmas Tourney champion Knights.
“We knew it would be like this. We knew they’d be ready. They’re a good team, they’re big, they’re physical. We were a little disjointed on offense and put ourselves in a hole,” said North Andover coach Paul Tanglis, whose club posted a huge win on Thursday night against D-1 state finalist Needham. “We fought back, but we just didn’t have enough juice at the end to pull it out. In the MVC, that’s just how it is.”
The night belonged to the Andover bigs, Luca Palermo and Sam Concemi.
Lunchpail Luca was legendary Luca against the Knights, leaning, lurching, levitating and launching an array of relentless post moves on his way to a 26-point, 12-rebound onslaught.
“He’s coming. We’re working hard at every facet of his game,” said Fazio of Palermo, who had 27 in Tuesday night’s win over Lawrence. “He’s handling adversity well. He’s playing with fouls like he did tonight. I’m just really proud of him.”
Concemi nailed the best supporting actor role with a dozen points and nine boards, canning a couple of threes.
“We’ve been waiting. We’ve been pushing. We’ve been prodding. We’ve been yelling. We’ve been kissing. We’ve been kicking. We’ve been waiting,” said Fazio. “He’s a man-child. and he was huge tonight.”
But those two weren’t alone.
Fab frosh Josh Roux hit three threes in his 10-point night. Will Tutwiler (9 points) ran the point to perfection, and to nobody’s surprise Danny Resendiz came up with seemingly every loose ball that mattered.
“The key was starting off strong on defense. Overall, we just dug deep and stayed consistent for four quarters and got the job done,” said Concemi.
“Luca and I work really well together, the high-low stuff. We’re both dominant bigs, but Luca really comes out here and eats night after night. I made some plays tonight, but we don’t win these games without him.”
Bryan Gyorda had a dozen points, and Jake Saalfrank added 10 for the Knights, now 7-2.
“Palermo is really good, and Concemi was hitting shots. Palermo wore us down,” said Tanglis, whose club is now 7-2. “He had a couple of really big offensive rebound (hoops) and when you’re struggling offensively, those are back-breakers.”
Andover 65, North Andover 64
North Andover (7-2): Zach DesRochers 3-0-8, Zach Wolinski 10-4-25, Jake Saalfrank 2-6-10, Niko Catalano 2-0-4, Angel Sanchez 2-0-5, Bryan Gyorda 4-0-12, Totals 23-10-64
Andover (7-3): Luca Palermo 11-3-26, Cam Gath 1-0-3, Josh Roux 3-1-10, Will Tutwiler 4-0-9, Danny Resendiz 2-0-5, Sam Concemi 4-2-12, Totals 25-6-65
3-pointers: NA — DesRochers 2, Wolinski, Sanchez, Gyorda 4; A – Palermo, Gath, Roux 3, Tutwiler, Resendiz, Concemi 2