Boys roundup: Salem’s late run helps Witches knock off Classical

Basketball is a game of runs and on Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Field House it was Salem who had the last big one against Lynn Classical.The Rams held a 55-53 lead in the fourth quarter when Salem went on a 12-2 spurt to open up an eight point lead ? a spurt that helped the Witches take a 71-65 win.”I saw a lot of good things out of my team from the second quarter on,” Salem coach Tom Doyle said. “We really turned up the intensity after the first quarter.”That first quarter ended with the Rams leading 19-12. Salem then turned it on in the second quarter and carried a 34-31 lead into the locker room.Classical (2-1) pushed its nose back in front at the end of the third quarter, leading by one at 48-47 before Salem put together its back-breaking charge.Antonio Reyes led the Witches with 19 points while Raphy Medrano had 14 and Dario Medrano added 13. Chris Dunston chipped in 10 huge points off the bench.Classical was led by 16 points from Nick Grassa and nine each by Shaddai Pena and Keith Nance.”The key was our inability to knock down our free throws,” Classical coach Tom Grassa said. “I think we missed 16.”English 81, Peabody 58At Peabody, the Bulldogs (3-0) spread the scoring around with nine players getting on the board. Travonne Berry-Rogers had 15 for English with Keandre Stanton and Josh Castillo adding 13 each and Corey McMillen, 12.”We had a balanced attack,” English coach Buzzy Barton said. “We pushed the basketball. We pressured them all over the court. They had trouble with our press.”Kyle Franey led Peabody (1-2) with 15 points.Saugus 71, Swampscott 52At Saugus, the Sachems (2-1) led most of the way and blew the game open in the third quarter to turn a 12-point lead into a 48-29 cushion.Omar Benabicha and Curtis Casella led the way for Saugus, finishing with 24 and 20 points respectively. The Big Blue got 21 points from Brian Sullivan. Mike Walsh had 12 and Dan Santanello chipped in 10.”We moved the ball well, but we didn’t finish,” Swampscott coach Justin Fucile said. “We didn’t turn the ball over ? but they got hot in the second quarter. They were hitting their jump shots.”Beverly 77, Revere 56At Revere, it was a closer game than the score indicates and the Panthers led by just six heading to the fourth quarter before outscoring the hosts, 26-11, in the final eight minutes.Zach Zigglebaum led the way for Beverly with 29 points and 16 rebounds. Ronnie Alford added 15 points while Evan Jones had 12 points and 14 rebounds.Winthrop 57, Danvers 50At Danvers, the Vikings (2-1) turned up the defensive intensity in the second half and were able to get the job done down the stretch. Mike Griffin had 22 points to pace the Winthrop attack.Joe D’Amore had 17 and Quintin Dale added 11 points for the Vikings.