LYNNFIELD— Sunday afternoon’s game between the Lynnfield and Danvers boys basketball teams was one the Pioneers would like to have back. Lynnfield turned an 18-point halftime deficit into a six-point lead with 2:55 to play. Then the Pioneers froze in the final minutes, watched visiting Danvers take the 68-65 win and walked off the court at Lynnfield High in frustration.
“I’m not happy with anything,” Pioneers coach Scott MacKenzie said. “Our guys had zero interest in being here for the first 16 minutes of the contest. It was embarrassing. It was disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to Danvers and disrespectful to Lynnfield High. These guys didn’t want to be here for the first half. We didn’t deserve to win.”
Jack Ford led the Pioneers with 20 points, while Clayton Marengi scored 18, Anthony Hunt chipped in with nine and Max Boustris added seven. Lynnfield featured eight scorers.
For Danvers, Justin DiTomaso scored 20 points (15 in the first half). Jared Berry tallied 12 points and Armani Vlaun scored 10. Danvers featured six scorers.
Hunt took the the ball to the paint and drew a foul on Lynnfield’s opening possession. The junior swished one of his two free throw attempts to put the Pioneers on the board quickly. But Lynnfield went scoreless for the next seven minutes and Danvers took advantage. A 10-0 Falcons run after Hunt’s freebie forced Lynnfield to burn a timeout. Hunt’s lay-in with 1:17 remaining in the first quarter ended the drought. Lynnfield trailed 20-4 at the end of the first quarter.
“Danvers took it to us,” MacKenzie said. “Maybe it was something they were doing. It was very evident early on. We got down 6-1 and you could see a couple guys felt sorry for themselves.
“Danvers is much more of a physical team than we are. But at the same time I think we allowed them to be physical. We could see it in warmups. We had 15 minutes to get loose on the floor, it was horrendous. This was in the writing for a long time and it’s incredibly disappointing as a coach.”
The second quarter was much more evenly played. Marengi, providing a much-needed offensive spark, scored the first six points of the quarter for Lynnfield. He tallied 11 altogether in the period and netted a 3-pointer at the buzzer. At halftime, the Pioneers trailed 41-23.
Things became interesting in the third quarter when Lynnfield created offense with its defense. A 13-2 Pioneers run whittled Danvers’ lead down to seven points at 43-36. Marengi highlighted the spurt with his second 3-pointer of the game and Boustris cashed in on a pair of offensive rebounds for a pair of lay-ins. All of the sudden Lynnfield was back in the thick of things, down 52-46 at the end of the third.
MacKenzie chalked his team’s turnaround up to effort and said no adjustments were made at recess.
“We made zero adjustments at halftime,” MacKenzie said. “We told the kids ‘you have three minutes to make a play or we’re going to empty the bench.’ That was it. That tells me it was all about effort, will and backbone. There was nothing we did differently.”
Six points in a row from Hunt, followed by Stephen Dwyer Jr.’s basket, gave the Pioneers a 54-52 lead (their first lead since the opening quarter). Lynnfield took a 63-57 edge with 2:55 remaining but went scoreless until the final seconds. Danvers closed the game on an 11-2 run for the 68-65 win. The Pioneers fell short of a game-tying 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
Lynnfield dropped to 1-3 and visits Melrose Thursday evening (5).
