PEABODY — It’s hard to know where to begin to tell the tale of Sunday’s boys basketball thriller between the Peabody Tanners and the visiting Bishop Fenwick Crusaders, won by Peabody 54-53.
You might start with Peabody junior guard Chris Canela (32 points). All he did was score each and every one of the Tanners’ first 28 points to single-handedly help Peabody build up a 28-11 lead midway through the second quarter.
Or perhaps, you might start with senior Jake Irvine (5 points). He made two free throws to break Canela’s streak, but was stone cold from the field. But he saved his best for last, taking a feed from senior Marcus Barker (4 points) and draining the game-winning 3-pointer with only four seconds left to erase what would have been an epic comeback for the Crusaders, who trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half. It was Irvine’s only bucket of the game.
Fenwick (3-9) had taken a 2-point lead at 53-51 after a big offensive rebound and putback by senior captain Jack Bowers (10 points) with 27 seconds left in regulation. Fenwick caught a huge break when Peabody turned the ball over with a double dribble, giving the Crusaders the chance to run out the clock with just 22 seconds remaining. Fenwick beat the Tanners press, but returned the favor with a turnover, giving the Tanners the ball with 15.6 seconds left.
Finally, you could start with the fact that the game truly was a tale of two halves. Fenwick couldn’t do anything right in the first half against Peabody’s smothering press, coughing one possession after another.
The Crusaders trailed 32-11 after Irvine’s free throws and a steal and hoop by senior guard Avian Hernandez (6 points), but they played their way back into the game with an 11-2 run to go into halftime down by just 12, 34-22.
They started the third quarter on a mission, and went on an even better run, 17-0, to grab a 39-34 lead. After that is was game on for both teams, who went back-and-forth the rest of the game.
Peabody coach Thad Broughton, said while the first half was one of Peabody’s best, the second half was a totally different story.
“That was an unbelievable first half by Chris Canela, never seen anything like it,” he said. “As good as we played in the first half, Fenwick played just as well in the second half. What ended up happening was couldn’t hit our shots so we couldn’t really set up our press at all and to their credit, Fenwick did a fantastic job of converting their opportunities.”
In spite of the loss, Fenwick coach Kevin Moran was pleased with the way his team battled back.
“They came back hard and as a coach that’s what you like to see,” he said. “We may not have won the game, but I couldn’t be more proud of these kids. Hey, that kid (Irvine) hits a great shot at the end on a Sunday afternoon before a Pats game, what could be better. I love playing Peabody, I coached Thad and he’s a good coach and he did a good job. They just hit one more shot than we did.”
Canela drained his first shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the corner and was off to the races, finishing with all 18 Peabody points and a 12 point lead at 18-6. Fenwick was down 18-2 with under 20 seconds to go, but hoops by Jay Sean Stuart (team-high 16 points) and a putback on an offensive rebound by freshman Christian Loescher (6 points) helped the Crusaders’ cause.
Canela took up where he left off in the second quarter, scoring the Tanners first 10 points.
Stuart provided a little spark over the final two minutes, scoring nine of the Crusaders final 11 points to get the deficit down to 12, 34-22, going into halftime.
After Fenwick’s big run in the first four minutes of the third quarter, Peabody regrouped and went on a 12-3 run to close out the quarter and take a 46-42 lead into the final eight minutes. As Fenwick had done in the second, the Tanners put up a bunch of points in a hurry. Trailing 42-38 with 42 seconds to go, senior Jake Gustin (6 points) drained a three and was fouled. After swishing the free throw to complete a 4-point play, the game was tied at 42. A Gustin steal and Barker layup with 15 seconds left added two more. Stuart went down hard on the play and did not return to action. On the ensuing inbounds play, Hernandez stole the ball and took it in for a layup to close out the quarter.
Points were hard to come by for both teams in the fourth quarter. Peabody stretched the lead to six, 51-45, after a steal by junior Tyler Callahan (1 point) and layup by Hernandez. Never-say-die Fenwick fought back to tie the game at 51-51 with 2:13 left on hoops by Loescher (after a big board by junior Nate Andrews), Bower (after another big board by senior Jack Keenan) and Andrews (after a Loescher rebound).
With a minute to go, Peabody’s defense was within a second of forcing a shot clock violation. Nik Pignone (10 points) threw up a prayer and Bowers grabbed the rebound and ducked under Callahan for the layup to put Fenwick on top 53-51 with 27 seconds to go, leaving it to Irvine to close the deal.
“I wasn’t making any shots, but you have to keep shooting,” said Irvine. “Up to then, I missed all of my shots, but I was open, I had the confidence to take it and luckily we came out with a win. It wasn’t our best game, but we’ll take it.”
For Fenwick, Keenan (5 points) and Andrews (4 points) also scored. Loescher was a beast on the boards with 14 rebounds, while Bowers had eight.
For Peabody, Barker and Hernandez had six rebounds, while Callahan, Gustin and Irvine had four.
Canela said he felt his pregame warmup set the stage for his big night.
“I got a great warmup in and I felt good coming in. When I get going, my teammates are so good to get me the ball,” he said. “In the second half, they came out with a box and one on me and sometimes had two, even three guys on me. After that I barely touched the ball but my teammates stepped up, so it was my turn to feed them.”
