FILE PHOTO
Classical’s Erick Solis led the Rams with 29 points on Tuesday night.
By SCOT COOPER
Lynn – After losing to Lynn English last week in the Walter Boverini Tournament, the Lynn Classical boys’ basketball team got some sweet revenge on Monday night, defeating the Bulldogs, 81-61, at the Cavanagh gym.
Classical (5-3) coach Tom Grassa said that his team did what they wanted to do: make their shots, and shut down English’s Anthony Silfa. Silfa still led the home team with 25 points, but Classical’s Solis brothers combined for 44 points to lead the Rams to victory. Erick Solis was the high scorer with 29 points, and his brother Edwin chipped in 15.
“We wanted to shut Silfa down, and we did a pretty good job doing that. He’s their best ball-handler,” Erick Solis said. “Coach (Grassa) said be aggressive, get up on them, stay in their face and make our shots, and we did.”
“That was the key for our team, (to) shut down Silfa. He’s their big gun and we put two guys on him every time he touched the ball,” Classical captain Jakeel Brown said. “We just wanted this one so bad after losing to those guys last week. We wanted to come in here and get a win, and we did. It was a great effort by my teammates tonight.”
Lynn English (5-3) scored the first bucket of the night and held a 7-6 lead with just over five minutes to play in the first quarter. Erick Solis swished a three from the right corner to put the Rams up, 9-7, with 5:01 left in the first, and the Rams wouldn’t trail again.
Grassa said that the special attention to Silfa and a great job on the boards were the keys to a Ram win.
“I think the big thing tonight was the defensive effort, it was really solid. We came in with a plan to defend Silfa, and we did a really nice job doing that,” Grassa said.
“We had a great effort from the Solis brothers and Javier Pimentel, who did an excellent job on the glass, really fought for the rebounds. He fouled out early in the fourth, and still led us in rebounds.”
“We got a great effort from Fred Desehoula off the bench, and Gilbert Minaya gave us a great effort too,” Grassa said. He (Minaya) was assigned to Anthony (Silfa) most of the night and did a good job.”
Bulldogs coach Mike Carr said there were bursts of effort from his team, but nowhere near enough to get the win.
“We’re just not playing well. That’s two bad (games) in a row,” Carr said, referring to the Bulldogs’ loss to St. Mary’s in the Boverini tournament final. “We need 32 minutes of up-tempo basketball and 32 minutes of effort, and we’re not getting that right now. Classical wanted this one much more than us.”
Scot Cooper can be reached at [email protected] follow him on Twitter @bscooper60.
