MALDEN — Things couldn’t have looked worse for the English boys basketball team Sunday at Malden Catholic’s Doherty Gym.
The Bulldogs had needed a flurry of baskets in the closing minutes of the third frame to rescue themselves from being blown out, and still opened the quarter down by seven points. Worse, they already had nine fouls, which meant that one more and the Lancers would be in double bonus (two guaranteed free throws for every foul). Not a very appetizing recipe for a comeback.
But the Bulldogs fought back against all of that, committed only one more foul and then never got No. 11. And they overcame the deficit to win the game, 74-66.
“We’re disciplined,” said Bulldogs coach Antonio Anderson, whose team raised its record to 8-1. “We struggled early in the game, and we were getting frustrated,” he said. “But I just told them to stop worrying about it and just play. And we played the way we are capable of playing.”
It doesn’t hurt, Anderson said, that he has some very good athletes on his team.
“They’re tremendous athletes, and they can really make plays,” said Anderson.
He was also impressed with his team’s mental ability to rebound from what looked to be a tough road loss.
“It looked like it was going to be a tough day,” he said. “We’re on the road, we’re down by 10, we’re in penalty, we had to get stops, and we had to get them without fouling. And we did.”
The first quarter featured exciting back-and-forth action, with English emerging with a 21-17 lead. The Bulldogs had threatened to blow it open early, grabbing a 15-7 edge, but the Lancers staged a late flurry to close the quarter within four points.
Malden Catholic continued to outplay English in the second quarter, and by halftime, the Lancers had overtaken English, 39-35.
Neither team could get much separation, and when Louis Rivera drained a three midway through the period, it was 44-44. From there, however, the Lancers stifled English and went on a 13-3 run — the final two points coming from Chris MacDonald free throws following a technical foul on the English bench.
That made the score 57-47, and only a traditional 3-point play by Javaris Hill (one of six Bulldogs in double figures with 11) made it 57-50 going into the fourth.
Ademide Badmus (14 points) got English off to a good start in the fourth, narrowing Malden Catholic’s lead to five (57-52). The two teams kept going back and forth until Javonte Edwards (team-high 16 points) and Alonzo Linton (15) scored on back-to-back thunderous dunks, which not only put English up, 62-61, but seemed to deflate the Lancers. They only scored five points the rest of the way while English caught fire and connected on 12.
As this was an exclusion game, it didn’t count for tournament seeding purposes. But Anderson made no mistakes about what that means.
“Oh, it counts,” he said. “Now, we have to get ready for the big one Wednesday.”
The Bulldogs are at home Wednesday to play Classical.
