Saugus ends 21-year winless tourney drought

TYNGSBOROUGH – The Saugus boys basketball team went into this year’s Division 3 North tournament not having seen a postseason victory in 21 years.That drought is over.The Sachems defeated Greater Lowell, 92-60, Tuesday night in the first round of the tournament and now advance to the quarterfinals, where they will play at top-seeded Hamilton-Wenham Friday.Saugus coach Paul Moran was elated with his team’s performance.”I am so proud of my team today,” he said. “We played a good team and performed very well against Lowell. My team shot the ball extremely well, and played an unbelievable game on the defensive side.”The key to the game was the Sachems’ full-court pressure defense. The Gryphons struggled all night long turning over the ball 25 times.Saugus capitalized to the fullest off the turnovers, by jumping out to a 23-9 lead after the first quarter.The Sachems had a commanding lead (52-34) at halftime. The lead was never lower then 20 points in the final 16 minutes.Saugus’ balanced scoring attack accounted for 15 three pointers, and scored 40 points in the paint. The Sachems had 10 different players get in on the scoring.Moran believed another key to his team’s offense, besides creating turnovers, was the play of senior point guard Peter DiStefano.”Peter did a great job running the offense. He made all the right decisions for the most part, and did not have a turnover all game,” Moran said.Leading the way for Saugus was Omar Benabicha, scoring a game-high 33 points. Brian Boyajian chipped in with 17 points.Joe Lowe had a strong performance with 12 points. For Lowell, Jose DeJesus had a really strong showing, scoring a team-high 22 points. Ryan Silva chipped in with 13 points. Kevin Ma shot strong from the outside hitting four three pointers for 12 points.Moran knows his team is in for a battle Friday night.”They are not the No. 1 seed for no reason. They are a very good team, but my boys will be ready to play,” Moran said.