English clinches state tournament berth with win over Brockton

LYNN – A bit of fair warning to the rest of the teams in Division 1 and the North sectional: The reports of Lynn English’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.On Sunday at the Paul F. Cavanagh Field House, the Bulldogs laid their claim as one of the top teams in the state as Travonne Berry-Rogers poured in 29 points and Keandre Stanton, who was named a team captain on Saturday, added 21 as English held off a late run by Brockton to take a 73-68 win over the No. 4 ranked Boxers.”Brockton is ranked fourth in the state and you can see why from watching this game,” English coach Buzzy Barton said. “My kids played so hard and they stepped up the defensive intensity in the second half when we needed it. Keandre and Travonne had great games.”With the win, English (10-1) clinched a state tournament berth and took a big step back into the spotlight for the first time this season. It didn’t come without a few headaches though as Brockton (7-3) made things very difficult for the Bulldogs down the stretch.English trailed by three (40-37) at halftime but got a monster third quarter from Stanton and Berry-Rogers, who combined to score 15 of 24 points to give the Bulldogs a 61-53 lead after three. The lead eventually blossomed to 67-56 thanks to powerful board work from Stanton and Corey McMillen.Brockton called time out and it seemed to stop the bleeding as the Boxers came charging back. A conventional 3-point play from Jamal Reuben was followed by a Shane Sims (21 points) layup that suddenly had the lead down to six.Stanton’s rim-rattling dunk momentarily stemmed the tide but Brockton wasn’t through yet as a 3-point play from Jaylen Blakely and a Sayvonn Houston putback cut the lead to 69-66 with 90 seconds remaining.Stanton missed the front end of a one-and-one with 43 seconds left but the Bulldog defense was staunch and didn’t let the Boxers get a look at a tying three. Berry-Rogers was fouled and knocked down both shots to extend the lead back to five.Sims hit two shots at the other end to get the lead back to three with 6.6 seconds left. But Berry-Rogers went back to the stripe and hit two shots with five seconds left to put the game on ice.”Travonne is a great player and he really loves the big stage,” Barton said.The pace was breakneck from the very start as both teams turned the hardwood into sawdust with their speed. Berry-Rogers was unstoppable in the first quarter, scoring 14 points to give English a 22-20 lead after a quarter.Brockton turned up the pressure in the second as Sims and Houston teamed to score 14 of the Boxers’ 20 points as they carried the lead into halftime.