Boys Basketball: English hits stride, beats Saugus

The Lynn English boys basketball team is beginning to look like the squad that most observers had pegged to make plenty of noise come the beginning of March.Led by 32 points and 16 rebounds from Keandre Stanton on Friday, the Bulldogs steamed past Saugus, 85-72, at the Paul F. Cavanagh Field House to pick up their third straight win.”I was very proud of the effort we had,” English coach Mike Carr said. “We went through a tough stretch but I’m extremely pleased with the way we’ve played the last couple of games.”English (8-3, 6-3 NEC North) had things in control throughout as they led by 11 after a quarter and 45-30 at halftime. The lead eventually grew to 70-45 after three before the Bulldogs were able to cruise home.Stanton got plenty of help on Friday as Freddie Hogan had 12 points and Kadeem Greene added 10 to lead 12 different Bulldogs who scored.Saugus got 17 points from Curtis Casella and 14 from Shane Ripley in the loss.St. Mary’s 58,Austin Prep 28At Reading, the Spartans (10-3, 5-1 CCL Large) locked up a spot in the Division 4 North tournament with the win. Nick Gagliolo had 13 points to lead St. Mary’s with Devin Thompson and John Teehan adding 11 each.Swampscott 65,Classical 61At Classical, the Rams (6-6) suffered a defensive breakdowns in the second half as the Big Blue put up 43 points to steal a road win.Swampscott was led by 16 points from Mike Walsh while A.J. Baker and Dan Santanello added 14 each. Classical got 16 points from Uche Nwokeji with Devon Morris adding 14 and Moise Builou, 12.Danvers 70, Peabody 48At Peabody, the locomotive that is the Falcons continued to roll through its NEC opposition as Nick Bates had 14 points to lead all scorers. George Merry added 10 for Danvers, who ran out to an 18-2 first quarter lead.Peabody (5-5) got 16 points from Mike Gould and 10 by Andrew Preshong.Marblehead 68, Revere 37At Revere, the Magicians (3-8) snapped a six game skid as Brian Gellert put up 24 points and nine rebounds. Jeff Peras added 17 points and Phil Coughlin had 12 for Marblehead.Salem 52, Winthrop 43At Salem, Marvin Baez poured in seven threes and Christian Dunston handed out 10 assists as the Witches (5-4) pulled off a mild upset against the NEC South leading Vikings (9-4).Winthrop got 14 points from Jeff Laguerre and 12 from Quinton Dale.Beverly 58, Gloucester 43At Beverly, the Panthers (8-3) kept hold of the top spot in the NEC North as Avon Jones had 11 and Dom Abate 10 in the workmanlike win over the Fishermen.