Casella’s clutch shots propel Saugus past Classical

SAUGUS ? There’s a term known as “clutch” for players who play their best when the game is in the balance. Curtis Casella scored 30 points, including his team’s last nine of the game, to lead the Saugus High boys basketball team to a 69-60 win over Lynn Classical, Friday night, at Saugus.Click here for a photo gallery of last night’s game.With his team leading by six, Casella nailed an off-balance jumper from the foul line with 1:22 to go, then 10 seconds later drilled the final stake with a 3-pointer from the left elbow.?Curtis is a great player who likes to take charge,” Saugus coach Paul Moran said. “I couldn’t be any prouder of him.”This was a pivotal game betwen two teams that are fighting for state tournament berths. Saugus (7-6) also got 11 points from Selim Omerovic, while Davon Morris and Uche Nwokeji paced the Rams (6-7) with 13 points. Jalen Brown added 10.Classical can point to two components – free throws and 3-point shots – as its undoing. While Saugus was a tidy 24-for-30 from the line (including Casella’s 11-for-12), the Rams were just 50 percent (11-for-22) from the line, and 4-for-23 from beyond the arc.?We usually shoot about 20 percent (from 3-point range), so that’s not even par for us,” Classical coach Tom Grassa said. “And we really weren’t much better inside tonight.”The Rams led by as many as five points in the first quarter, and by six in the second, but the Sachems went on an 11-1 run to close out a sloppy first half and led, 31-24,at halftime.Classical increased its full-court pressure in the third quarter and immediately went on a 8-0 run to take the lead.?We worked to prepare for the press, but I guess we didn’t prepare enough,” Moran said. “That’s what you get when you play Classical. They’re so intense and so relentless.”Joe Bertrand and Casella hit 3-pointers to bookend a 9-0 run for Saugus to restore the Sachems’ lead, and a couple of free throws and a bucket by Casella in the final minute of the third quarter gave Saugus a 44-38 advantage heading into the final period.Coming off the bench, Classical’s Eddie Solis scored all nine of his points in a 1:40 span early in the fourth, and his 3-pointer from the left wing put the Rams back on to, and he added a pair of free throws to give Classical a 51-47 lead with 5:30 left in the game.Bertrand made a 3-pointer from the left wing to key a 6-0 spurt for Saugus, but Morris answered with a three to give Classical its last lead of the game at 54-53 with 4:14 left.The Rams didn’t score another field goal until the final minute, while Casella took over. He made a free throw, then canned a runner moving across the lane with 2:50 left to put Saugus on top for good.