English boys hoop outlasts Lowell

LYNN – Basketball, says English coach Buzzy Barton, is a game of runs. It also roughly mirrors an old Jerry Reed song that says, “When you’re hot, you’re hot ? and when you’re not, you’re not.”English was hot for two quarters last night – piping hot – while Lowell was, to quote another song, “cold as ice.” So cold, in fact, that the Red Raiders scored a grand total of 12 points in the middle two periods (five and seven, respectively), while English built up a 20-point lead by scoring 21 and 15 over the same span.That gave the Bulldogs a 51-31 lead. But then they played the fourth quarter, and as bad as Lowell had looked up to that point, that’s how good the Red Raiders looked in the final eight minutes. They poured in 29 points while English – in some cases – had trouble getting the ball up court.But the story has a happy ending. English held on (for dear life) to win, 68-63. The two teams engage in a rematch Wednesday (3) in Lowell.”They make me earn these gray hairs,” said Barton. “They really make you earn it.”Both teams play the same kind of game, so it was bound to be like this,” he said.The win moves English to 20-1 with a game to go. The Dogs also passed a huge test in beating a very good Merrimack Valley (and Division 1) rival.Lowell started out in good fashion, taking a 22-15 lead after one. But then English couldn’t miss – and Lowell couldn’t put the ball in the ocean. The Dogs outscored the Raiders, 21-5, in the second quarter and again, 15-7, in the third before the game really began.It started when Lowell installed a full-court trap, designed to slow down junior Ryan Woumn (19 points), who had dominated the game to that point. The trap also hurried English into making some bad passes, all of which the Raiders seemed to convert as the quarter wore on. Methodically, they whittled that lead down, getting it to single digits midway through the quarter and down to six at several points.However, the Bulldogs hit their foul shots down the stretch to hold the Raiders at bay.Eugene Turner scored a very effective 12 points to back up Woumn, and Justin Young had 13.Alberto Sandoval led Lowell with 19 points, with Nathan Simpson putting in 18.