Final eight minutes belong to Everett as Classical basketball falls

EVERETT – For three quarters Tuesday, the Classical and Everett basketball teams had traded the lead 11 times and had been tied on six other occasions.But it was the final eight minutes that belonged to the Crimson Tide.Everett rattled off a 14-0 run to begin the final period, capping a 27-7 spurt, that turned a 38-37 Classical lead into a 20-point Everett lead and an eventual 71-55 victory.”Our kids kind of dug in and did a real good job at the defensive end,” Everett coach John DiBiaso said. “We got the stops when we needed them and were able to capitalize with baskets.”Classical (8-5) had the lead with five minutes left in the third quarter before Jarell Byrd picked up his fourth foul and the Crimson Tide took advantage.The Everett defense shut down the Rams, who scored only 22 points in the second half, by taking away Classical’s fast break and holding Jasper Grassa to five second half points after he had 16 in the first half.”That shows you how important Jarell is,” Classical coach Tom Grassa said. “You have to pay a lot of attention to him when he’s in there. And with him out, we couldn’t get the ball over the top of their pressure.”With Byrd on the bench with four fouls, Everett turned a 40-39 lead into a 50-44 gap heading into the fourth quarter. Byrd returned, but not for long as he was called for his fifth foul on a tie up with Jerome Cohen.The Crimson Tide (10-1) didn’t waste much time in laying waste to the Classical defense from there. Cohen, Jim Noel and DeQuan Lee helped lead a 14-0 run that Dio McCloud capped with a steal and a layup that made it 64-44 with 3:08 remaining.”That was a good little run we had,” DiBiaso said. “And that came from our defense.”It was the second major run that Everett had put on in the contest, which saw the return of Isaac Johnson to the court after a 10 game absence.”Unfortunately we had to face them with the return of Isaac,” Grassa said.McCloud shot the lights out in the first quarter as his seven points helped the Crimson Tide take a 20-9 lead in the early going before the Rams steadied themselves with a Grassa three.Ayala followed with a layup that cut the margin to six at quarter’s end. Another Ayala layup and Grassa bomb cut the gap to one and when Alex Watler scored on a fast break, Classical had put together a 12-0 run to take a 21-20 lead and force a DiBiaso timeout.The rest of the half saw the teams trade the lead back and forth six times before a 3-point play by Grassa with 10.2 seconds left gave Classical a 31-29 halftime lead.The third quarter saw the teams swap the lead five more times in the first three minutes before Jim Noel tapped home a miss with 4:00 left in the third to give Everett a 38-37 lead and send them on their game-changing run over the next seven minutes.