Beverly turns aside Marblehead rally

MARBLEHEAD ? Though it carved what had been a 16-point deficit to six in the last two minutes, the Marblehead High boys basketball team couldn’t make it all the way back and dropped a 58-49 decision to Beverly, Friday night, at Marblehead High.Alex Conn’s steal and layup for the Magicians (4-5) with 1:35 remaining made the score 52-46 in favor the Panthers (7-2). Marblehead went into a foul mode and Beverly hit 3-of-6 from the line before Scott Temme made a deep three to make it a two-possession game again with 17.5 seconds left.The Panthers closed out the scoring with one free throw from Dom Abate and a pair from Cam Rogers.”We talked about getting a lead on them, because they don’t have a lot of offensive firepower,” Beverly coach Scott Lewis said. “We got the lead we wanted, but then we almost gave it away.”Playing without point guard Jonangel Franco (finger injury), the Panthers were led by Nick Cross with 17 points, while Rogers and Jonathan Berchoff had a dozen each. Temme paced the Magicians with 16 points, while Conn added 12.”Beverly, they’ve got so many weapons, and they went to the line so many times,” said Marblehead coach Wayne Hanscom, referring to the 28-7 edge the Panthers had in free throws. “They’re (7-2) for a reason. The have some real good shooters.”After a somnambulant first quarter that ended with Beverly ahead, 10-6, the Panthers opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run, but consecutive 3-pointers by Spencer Craig and Temme helped cut the Magicians’ deficit back to three. Cross sparked a 7-point burst that put Beverly head by double-digits (24-14) for the first time with 2:47 left in the first half.The Panthers closed the opening half with a 5-0 run, all on points from the line to lead, 28-19, at the break.The Magicians trailed by six when Conn scored on a rebound with 4:22 left in the third quarter, but Beverly ended the period with a 12-4 run, with five different players scoring for the Panthers.Mike Dooling scored on a post-up hoop on the first possession of the fourth quarter to give the Panthers their largest lead of the game, 49-33, but Beverly didn’t score another point for nearly four minutes, while Marblehead crept back into the game behind Temme and Matt Millett, who combined for 11 straight points.