LYNN — For three quarters of Friday’s Division 1 North quarterfinal between No. 8 Lawrence and No. 1 English, it was anybody’s game. Then English turned things up a notch in the fourth quarter and when the Bulldogs found their groove, Lawrence couldn’t keep up.
English bumped Lawrence with a 82-63 win over the Lancers at a jam-packed Paul Cavanagh Field House.
“I knew Lawrence was going to compete,” English coach Antonio Anderson said. “I know (Lawrence coach) Jesus Moore, he’s a good friend of mine. One thing he drives to his team is competing. I told our guys the other day ‘they’re not going to stop playing. We’re going to have to play four quarters.’ I think we did a good job at that.
“They fought, they fought and they fought. Every time they made a play, we made a play. It was good for us. We haven’t played a game in almost two weeks. To get a game like that, it’s tough but it’s only going to help us.”
English’s Alonzo Linton powered the Bulldogs with 28 points and 15 rebounds. Jarnel Guzman scored 21 points. Joaquin Crespo, perhaps English’s X-factor of the game, scored 17 points and netted five 3-pointers.
“Joaquin’s capable of that,” Anderson said. “During the season, he made shots. It’s just about him getting a rhythm and getting comfortable. He looked at me and said ‘coach, I’m ready.’ He went out there and made some plays, kept us in the game, opened it up for us when they got us in the hunt. That’s what we needed.”
Guzman started the game with a jumper and hit a 3-pointer to give English a swift 5-2 lead. A dunk from Linton and Mason Jean-Baptiste’s layup bumped the Bulldogs’ lead to 9-4. Then Linton caught fire and dominated play for the rest of the period. Linton finished with 15 points in the first quarter but it wasn’t enough to put the Lancers in a steep deficit. English led 22-16 at the end of the first quarter.
“Alonzo’s been on a tear,” Anderson said. “I think he’s finally getting it. I think he’s been over 20 for the last eight games, double-figures in rebounds, playing like a man. You can’t teach that. He wants to win.”
Both teams found their range from 3-point land in the second quarter. With Lawrence down three and knocking on the door after an English shot clock violation, English swiped a steal to set Calvin Seng up for a much-needed layup. Seng’s layup gave the Bulldogs a 29-24 edge and his 3-pointer with 1:45 to play made it 36-31 Bulldogs. At halftime, English led 38-35.
Twice the Lancers cut English’s lead to a point in the third quarter. Every time the Bulldogs needed a basket to keep Lawrence at an arm’s length, the Bulldogs put the ball in the hoop. Guzman converted on an and-one after a nifty move to the basket, turning a 3-point lead into a 53-47 edge.
Crespo swished a crucial 3-pointer down the stretch and hit a pair of free throws, helping English remain in front, 60-54 at the end of the third.
English caught steam in the fourth to make things tough on Lawrence-putting the game out of reach with stifling defense while drawing fouls in transition. Crespo’s fifth 3-pointer of the night pushed the Bulldogs to their first double-digit advantage, 68-57, with 5:32 to play. The Lancers, limited to just nine points in the fourth, came as close as within nine in the closing stretch.
“I said ‘we just have to make plays, we just have to rebound,'” Anderson said of his message to the Bulldogs entering the fourth quarter. “We made plays, we were able to rebound. Alonzo, Jack (Rodriguez) and Jarnel started rebounding. It made the game easier for us. When we rebound, we’re hard to stop. When we get in transition, we’re tough to stop.”
English advances to the Division 1 North semifinal where the Bulldogs take on the winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal between No. 12 Andover and No. 4 Boston Latin.
Lawrence, under the guidance of first-year Lancers coach Jesus Moore, finished the season at 15-7.
