Lynnfield boys hoop still unbeaten

LYNNFIELD ? If you showed up five minutes late to this one, you pretty much missed it.
The Lynnfield High boys’ basketball team blitzed Rockport with an 18-0 run to open the game and cruised to a 49-25 win over the Vikings, in an early-season Cape Ann League showdown at Lynnfield High.
Jake McHugh led all scorers with 21 points, 14 of which came in the opening run. Tom Kearney added eight for the Pioneers, who have won their first six games of the season. Andrew Wayrynen paced Rockport (3-2) with 12 points.
?We didn’t do a good job of defending their jump shots at the beginning of the game,” Rockport coach Tim St. Laurent said. “When you give an open look to a high school player, he’s going to make it.”
The Pioneers made five 3-pointers in the first quarter, which ended with them on top, 21-2. Rockport didn’t make a field goal in the opening period, settling for a pair of free throws by Travis Sweet, with 2:44 left in the first period.
?I was pleased with our defense tonight,” Lynnfield coach Scott Mackenzie said. “We’ve been playing games in the 40s and 30s, and tonight we held them to 25.”
Wayrynen hit the Vikings’ first field goal, a three-pointer from the right wing, with 6:35 left in the second period, and he made another three 36 seconds later to make the score 23-8, but both teams sputtered offensively after that and Lynnfield led, 29-12, at halftime.
Both Wayrynen and guard Mike McCarthy battled through injuries. Wayrynen turned his ankle during warm-ups, and McCarthy strained a hip in the first quarter.
?We pretty much run everything offensively through McCarthy, so it was a tough injury for us,” St. Laurent said.
The Vikings got as close as 13 a couple of times in the third quarter, but McHugh hit a floater from the left baseline and then converted a layup off a steal generated by the press to swing the momentum back to Lynnfield. Louis Ellis nailed a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Pioneers their first 20-point lead (41-21), and then Nick Eliopoulos made a three-point play when he sank a floater from the lane while he got fouled with 0.2 seconds left in the period.Lynnfield outscored Rockport, 5-2, in an anticlimactic fourth quarter.