PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Dominic Jette flies past Pioneer’s Lesley Lamothe to the hoop.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — Sophomore guard Dominic Jette had 22 points and seven rebounds to help lift the KIPP Panthers boys’ basketball team over the Pioneer Charter Panthers, 56-37, at the KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate gym on Thursday night.
With the win, KIPP improved to 5-2 on the season.
“Pioneer is a good team, and they always give us fits when we play them,” said KIPP coach Chris Norkun. “This is the second time we’ve played them this week, so it’s always tough to beat a team twice like that. Great job by the guys.”
KIPP senior forward Dave Meletus had a good night with 16 points and seven rebounds, while freshman forward Nathan Mehu had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Senior point guard Dalton Andujar had six points and four rebounds.
For Pioneer, junior forward Lesley Lamothe just missed a double-double, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds. Junior forward Giovanni Mercado-Vicente had six points and nine rebounds.
KIPP got off to a hot start in the first half. More specifically, it was Jette who got off to a hot start. Jette came out and hit a deep three-pointer for the first points of the game, and within the first five minutes, he had already scored 11 points. He was 3-for-5 from the three-point line, and probably could’ve done even more damage if he hadn’t gotten into foul trouble.
Once Jette was forced to take a seat, it was Meletus’ turn to take over the game. He pulled down some big rebounds and sunk a few baskets in the paint, but it was one play near the end of the half that had everyone talking. With just over three minutes left in the first half, Meletus knocked a ball loose and grabbed it for a breakaway. He gained control of the ball, took two giant steps and rose up for a vicious slam dunk that got the crowd roaring.
At the half, KIPP led, 28-19.
Pioneer came out hot early in the second half, but KIPP refused to let up. Pioneer was able to go on a small run over the first five minutes to bring the score to 34-27, but that was as close as they got.
Jette and Meletus were each able to hit some clutch shots down the stretch to help the Panthers pull away.
“I’m going to put that on the kids, they wanted to ramp it up at the end of the game,” said Norkun. “They told me they wanted to speed it up, and they went out and did a good job forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets.”
Add to that the incredible job that Mehu did on the glass in the second half, and KIPP was able to walk away with the easy victory.
“We got to try some new stuff tonight, which was really helpful,” Norkun said. “We have another game tomorrow and we won’t have time to practice, so being able to try some new things tonight will help us out a lot.”
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.
