The Lynn Tech boys basketball team came ready to play for Tuesday night’s Division 3 North first round game at Newburyport. Tech led by a point with under two minutes to play, but the No. 8 Clippers strung together a late rally for the 67-63 win over No. 9 Tech.
With the win, Newburyport advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal where the Clippers will host No. 1 St. Mary’s.
Rob Wallace led Tech with 25 points. Belmin Berilo scored 22 points and Tre Baldwin added 10 points. All three, along with Jama Aroni, were named CAC All-Stars this season.
“We came ready to play,” Tech coach Stevie Patrick said. “It’s a tournament game. We’re a better team than we were last year. We’re going to be even better next year. We’re going to be more experienced and we have a couple guys coming in.
“It was a really good year,” Patrick added. “I’m really proud of my seniors. They had a great season. Belmin and Rob were both nominated for CAC Player of the Year and we’ll know in a couple of days.”
Tech ends the season at 13-8.
“I told the guys I was proud of their good effort,” Patrick said. “The mental mistakes hurt us in the end. We had a lead with less than two minutes to play. Newburyport’s a tough place to win at but we gave it a great effort.”
Bedford 72, Saugus 37
The No. 13 Sachems saw their season end in the Division 3 North first round clash at No. 4 Bedford.
Vinnie Cirami, Robert McGrane and Christian Correia each scored 7 points for Saugus. Mike Bertrand swished two 3-pointers off the bench to finish with six points.
“They put tremendous pressure on us,” Saugus coach Mark Bertrand said.
We’re a young team, very inexperienced and it showed tonight. We prepared. We got ready, did a lot of things, did a lot of talking but they went right after us.
“We got it under 15, but we couldn’t bounce back,” Bertrand added. “Bedford’s pretty strong. We missed a lot of layups and that hurt us.”
St. John’s 81, Malden 64
At St. John’s, the No. 7 Eagles defeated No. 10 Malden in the Division 1 North first round. With the win, the Eagles advanced to Saturday’s (4) quarterfinal at No. 2 Lawrence.
St. Johns featured four players in double-figures. Nate Hobbs scored 19 points, Tommy O’Neil scored 18 points, Matt Relihan added 17 and Jarnel Snow-Guzman finished with 14.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Fenwick 54, East Boston 6
At Fenwick, the No. 8 Crusaders took down No. 9 East Boston to advance to Friday night’s (7) Division 3 North quarterfinal at No. 1 St. Mary’s.
Fenwick’s defense was the key to the big victory.
“Our great team defense cause all the troubles for East Boston,” said Crusaders coach Adam DeBaggis.
Freshman Liz Gonzalez led the way with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Senior Fredi DeGuglielmo added 7 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. Freshman Annie Murphy scored 4 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Friday night’s game at St. Mary’s will be the third meeting between the two Catholic Central League rivals this season.
“It’s huge,” DeBaggis said. “We’ve played St. Mary’s a couple of times in the tournament and they’ve all been big games but this might be the biggest. We’re two evenly-matched teams. It’s probably going to be one of the biggest games in the tournaments. We’re two even teams.”
