It’s English-Classical in Boverini boys final

LYNN – Lynn basketball fans who couldn’t wait until next Friday for the Classical-English boys basketball game now have a real treat on their hands.They don’t have to wait until next Friday. They can go down to St. Mary’s tonight (6:30) and see the two teams play each other in the final of the Walter J. Boverini basketball tournament.The teams arrived at their destination in different ways. English absolutely drilled Lynn Tech, 74-33, emptying its bench in the second half as it built up a 15-point first-quarter lead and never looked back.Classical had things much tougher with St. Mary’s, eking out a 60-58 victory on a buzzer-beating layup by sophomore Tony Wonde.The Classical-St. Mary’s game was a seesaw affair in which Classical would grab a little breathing room and St. Mary’s would respond with a flurry to pull itself close again.The Rams opened the fourth quarter with a 46-42 lead, and after Chris Muldoon drew the Spartans closer, Classical ripped off five straight points to make it 51-44. It looked as if the Rams had control.”But,” said coach Tom Grassa, “we have a way of getting a comfortable lead and then having it be a ballgame at the end. This is the fourth time we’ve done this.”A three-pointer by Jarell Byrd made it 57-49 later in the period, and, again, it looked as if Classical would pull away.But St. Mary’s scored the next eight points to pull into a tie with 1:07 left.”We did a lot of things right down the stretch,” said St. Mary’s coach Kevin Moran. “I’d say Chris Kefalas (who scored four of those eight points) really got after it. He played his best game tonight.”The Spartans finally tied it when Tyler Grillo hit two free throws. Single free throws by Byrd and John Bakopolus made it 58-58 with 14.9 seconds to go.After a Classical timeout, Rams guard Jasper Grassa took the inbounds pass and dribbled down the clock until he spied Chad Quintana coming across the middle. Quintana, in turn, found Byrd at the top of the key. Byrd, seeing he was double-teamed, threaded the needle and hit Wonde, who went up for the layup as the horn sounded.”The play was designed for Jarell,” Grassa said. “He made a very smart decision to pass the ball to Wonde.”English 74, Tech 33In the early game, the Bulldogs had their way with Tech (the defending champion), especially in the first two quarters when they built a 42-14 lead. The Tigers could only muster up four points in the second quarter.”I knew English was good ? and I knew they were this good,” said Tech coach Marvin Avery. “We’re young, and we can learn something from this.”The Bulldogs spread the ball around quite generously, with Rafael Perez leading the way with 15 points, Jose Rivera chipping in with 11, and Jeremy Subervi and Eugene Turner scoring nine and eight, respectively.”The kids played well, especially in the first half,” English coach Buzzy Barton said. “We came out with a press on them, and that’s what we do.”Their (Tech’s) name has been all over the trophy since (the tournament) started,” Barton said. “It’ll be nice to have someone else win it, and hopefully that’ll be us. But we have a long way to go.”