English boys basketball handles Beverly

LYNN – As the English boys basketball team left the court at halftime Friday night, Art Fiste – a man who knows a thing or two about high school hoops – said that it was the best half he’s ever seen the Bulldogs play.The second half wasn’t bad, either.The result was a dominating 70-38 victory over Beverly – a win that left Panther coach Scott Lewis to say, “They’ve sent a message, I think, this week with their big wins over Peabody and us.”The ‘Dogs (3-0) didn’t do much wrong in the first half, springing out to a 31-22 lead, and keeping the pressure on throughout thanks to a ferocious full-court press.”That’s our game,” said English coach Buzzy Barton. “We put pressure on teams. That’s what we do.”And Lewis said they did it well.”Everything we talked about before the game – all our key points – and they were able to do all of it,” he said. “We talked about not rushing shots, being aggressive on the boards ? but they put so much pressure on you they make you rush your shots.”The first half – and the game, really – just buzzed right by, mainly because English ran the floor from end to end. The Bulldogs burst out to an 8-0 lead, and by the end of the quarter it was 17-9.English continued to pull away in the second quarter, thanks mainly to Eugene Turner (22 points) and Jose Rivera (14).”Rivera ? he’s a wide body with a nice shot, and we didn’t have anyone who could handle him,” said Lewis, noting that his big man, Matt Tobin, was out of action for an unspecified reason.”He’d have been the one who could have matched up with (Rivera),” Lewis said.The other reason English dominated is that Barton sent 12 players onto the floor during the course of the game, and 11 of them scored.English increased the lead to 16 (48-32) in the third quarter – and that was only because Beverly’s Brian Skerry hit a free throw, and Dan Littlefield hit a three-pointer to get the lead back under 20.The Bulldogs finished the job in the fourth quarter, outscoring Beverly 22-6 to pull away.”We got off to a good start,” Barton said. “And I thought Eugene (Turner) had his best game yet.”And Rivera did well, too. It was nice to see him get some of his shots in tonight. He’s been real good on the boards, and on defense, though.”