North survives late charge by South to win Agganis Men’s Classic

LYNN – With the opportunity to see stars like Jarell Byrd, Ryan Woumn and Jasper Grassa play on the same team for one night on Monday in the sixth annual Agganis All-Star Men’s Basketball Classic, there was an air of excitement inside the Paul F. Cavanagh Field House.For nearly 30 minutes, however, the show was stolen by the North all-stars as they pushed out to a 16-point halftime lead and were on cruise control for most of the second. The South would rally late thanks to Woumn and Lynn Tech’s Gerrad Fairweather, but the charge came up short as the North escaped with a 91-88 win.Click here for a photo gallery.”We just dug ourselves too big a hole,” South coach Scott Lewis of Beverly said. “Our athleticism got us back in the game and we started to play better in the second half.”The North led comfortably for nearly the entire first half and kept the South at bay through the opening 10 minutes of the second half, seeing the lead cut to eight once on a Fairweather three.And when Somerville’s Franklin Salvador, who led his team with 15 to claim MVP honors, hit his fourth three of the night, the North led 74-63 and seemed to have things well under control.The South, though, was having none of that as Salem’s Sean Linehan and Derek McIntyre rattled off six straight to quickly cut the lead to five. Tech’s Felix Rios pushed the South even closer and Linehan’s putback off a McIntyre missed freebie suddenly had the lead cut to one.”The kids were trying to get used to each other in the first half and we made some mistakes,” Lewis said. “But they kept playing hard and good things started to happen.”The South finally got all the way back with 3:45 left when Fairweather swished a three to deadlock the game at 80-80. Winthrop’s Dino Mallios, however, drove to the basket and put the North back in front with 3:19 left.Masco’s John Daniels scored on a putback to make it a four-point game before Woumn, who scored all 14 of his points in the second half to corral South MVP honors, scored and was fouled with 100 seconds left.The East Tennessee State-bound senior missed the free throw and Mallios scored moments later to push the lead back to four and the North would be able to hang on from there.Byrd was a one-man show in the early going as he buried a pair of long range bombs early to keep his team close. The North, however, steadily pulled away as the half moved on and eventually pushed the lead to 15 at 31-16 on a Mallios trifecta.The South trimmed the gap back to 11 before a 9-2 North run late in the half extended the lead to 18.