The pedal was floored from the opening tip, and the Georgetown boys didn’t let up for the full 32 minutes of the game.
All told it was a clinical performance from the No. 3 Royals in Saturday’s first round of the Division 4 tournament, as the defending State Champions began their repeat quest by crushing No. 30 Carver, 88-56. The home team built a commanding 43-27 lead at the half, and continued to get everything it wanted offensively while scoring 20-plus points in each of the final two frames.
“We have a lot of veteran guys on this team,” said Georgetown assistant coach Ted Schruender, who has taken over the program for the team’s playoff run. “We have guys that know what it takes to win at a high level.”
A balanced night, Georgetown (16-5) have five players in double figures.
Both Jomar Terrero and Meziah Rodriguez nearly had double-doubles, with Terrero putting up 19 points with 9 rebounds, and Rodriguez finishing with 10 points and 8 boards. Then elsewhere, Brendan Loewen had 17 points, Irvin Zapata finished with 15 points and 7 boards, and Rayner Hernandez added 14 points.
Georgetown advances to the Division 4 Round of 16, where it’ll play No. 14 Sutton on Monday with tipoff set for 6 p.m. The game will take place at North Andover High School, as Georgetown’s gym is not large enough to host the team’s remaining tournament games.
Bailey phenomenal, but Port girls bow out
Maybe if they could have grabbed just one lead, it would have been a different story.
But a tough second quarter put the Newburyport girls too far behind, and despite some furious rallies, host Duxbury was always able to keep them at arm’s length. So unforunately for the No. 22 Clippers, their season did come to an end on Friday night following a 61-50 loss to the No. 11 Dragons in the first round of the Division 2 tornament.
“We dug a hole in the second quarter then cut it down to 7, but couldn’t find that last run,” said Newburyport coach Tim Mahan. “Foul trouble hurt us in the first half, but we gave it everything.”
Trailing 38-25 at halftime, Duxbury (15-6) got the lead up to as high as 15 in the third.
But Newburyport (14-7) fought to get themselves back into the game, mainly behind the efforts of junior Ava Bailey who had a phenomenal game with 25 points and 7 rebounds. The Daily News All-Star helped trim the deficit to 53-42 heading into the fourth, and the Clippers got as close as 7 in the final frame. But the Dragons were able to hang on late, getting two clutch layups and a block from Lilah MacQuarrie (15 pts), as well as strong overall games from Ella Fitzpatrick (17pts) and Regan Donovan (14 pts).
The season-ending loss of course stings.
But besides Bailey, the Clippers saw Christina Corneau chip in 10 points — which included a 4-point play that sparked the team’s comeback — along with Clara Thompson adding 8 points and Morgan Rouba finishing with 5 points. Then Mahan was also quick to credit the defensive play of both Rouba and Kady Tabor.
And the best part: All of the names mentioned so far will be back next year.
Senior captains Brooke Lawton and Alexandra Yavarow will be greatly missed. But between Bailey (11.6 ppg), Thompson (10.7 ppg), Rouba (7.2 ppg) and Corneau (5.5 ppg), the Clippers are in line to return their top-4 scorers come next winter.
“Next year, we’ll be ready to roll,” said Mahan.
Georgetown girls downed by No. 4 Millbury
It’s one thing to take down a league opponent that you’re familiar with.
But it takes an entirely different level to go on the road and beat a top-4 team in your division.
After beating CAL rival Ipswich in the preliminary round of the Division 4 state tournament two days prior, the Georgetown girls couldn’t pull off the stunner on Friday night. The No. 29 Royals fought until the final buzzer, but couldn’t keep up with No. 4 Millbury in what was a 55-30 season-ending loss. Leading the way for the Royals (6-15) was Brylee Hodges with 9 points, followed by Katie Davies with 8 points and Victoria Barbarick with 6 points.
But this is just the beginning for first-year coach Angel DeLeon and his team.
The program will sadly wave goodbye to two senior captains in Davies and Charlotte Kane. But the Royals are in line to return everyone else next year, which includes Barbarick (15.6 ppg, 38 3s), Hodges (12.6 ppg, 26 3s), Crismeylin Mateo (5.5 ppg) and Channel Vizcaino (5.4 ppg).
Amesbury seniors got their moment, but beat by Lynn Tech
At the end of the day, the Amesbury seniors still got their moment.
And it was a fitting one, especially for a senior class of Noah Snyder, Justin Dube, Joe Celia, Parker DeLong, Ollie Peters, Ryan Baker and Chase Linsey. The group had been so close to qualifying for the Division 4 playoffs over the first three years of their career, but were always just on the outside looking in. That was until this winter, when the No. 26 Redhawks not only made it back to the postseason, but got a 30-piece from DeLong to earn a preliminary round win over Hampshire Regional on their home court on Thursday night.
But in these tournaments, the competition only gets tougher the longer you go.
Amesbury knew that was going to be the case on Sunday afternoon, but still found out the hard way in a season-ending 77-40 loss to No. 7 Lynn Tech in the D4 first round. The host Tigers (14-7) opened the game on a lightning-quick 11-2 run, and bumped the lead up to two touchdowns at halftime before leading by 20-plus for basically the entire second half.
Despite what the final score says, Amesbury (9-13) still fought hard until the end. DeLong became the school’s 10th athlete to reach 1,000 career points this year, and for the season averaged over 22.0 points per game.