Boys Basketball: Saugus rallies to win

The Saugus boys basketball team was in a 14-point hole after the first eight minutes of its season on Tuesday in Gloucester. But the Sachems held the hosts to 17 points the rest of the way in rallying to take a convincing 56-40 win.The comeback was led by a dominant effort by Curtis Casella and Selim Omerovic. Casella had 16 points and six assists while Omerovic had 15 points and 14 rebounds as the Sachems owned the glass all game.Beverly 68, Classical 47At Beverly, the Panthers (1-0) christened their newly refurbished field house in style as they broke open a close game with a 19-5 run in the third quarter.Chris Keaton led the way for Beverly, finishing with a game-high 22 points. Dom Abate added 11 for the Panthers, who saw eight different players get on the scoresheet.The Rams were led by 11 points each from Jalen Brown and Moise Builou.Mystic Valley 54, Tech 44At Malden, the Tigers trailed by 18 points at one point and managed to cut the deficit to five before Mystic Valley pulled away for good.”The difference in the game is they killed us in rebounds,” Tech coach Marvin Avery said. “And they made their foul shots when they had to.”Mike Duarte was the leading scorer for Tech (0-1) with 18 points.Winthrop 69, Swampscott 62At Winthrop, the Vikings (1-0) hung a state championship banner and then had to survive a gritty comeback from a 20-point hole by Swampscott.”We came out a little slow and then we were able to settle down and get some things going,” Winthrop coach Dave Brown said. “Give Swampscott credit – they never gave up and kept battling.”Senior guard Joe Levesque led the Vikings with 19 points while Quinton Dale had all 14 of his points from the charity stripe. Joe D’Amore and Jeff Laguerre had 13 with Josh Babb adding 10.The Big Blue got a game-high 22 points from Val Temin. A.J. Baker added 18 with Dan Santanello and Mike Walsh adding 11 and 10 respectively.Danvers 65, Marblehead 40At Salem State, the Falcons (1-0) turned a three-point game into a 20-point lead with 28 second-quarter points and cruised from there.George Merry had 22 points and nine rebounds for Danvers. Nick Bates added 13 points and seven boards with Nick McKenna chipping in 12 points.Peabody 64, Salem 47At Salem, the Tanners made sure new coach Thad Broughton’s debut was a good one. Mike Gould led the effort with 20 points and junior Steve Leavitt was good for 10 points.”The kids played extremely hard,” Broughton said. “Salem’s a tough team and it (Salem High) is a tough place to play. I’m proud of my guys.”Marvin Baez had 20 points for the Witches (0-1).”They (the Tanners) did a nice job taking the momentum from us in the third quarter,” Salem coach Tom Doyle said.Salem is coming off a 15-6 season.