PEABODY — Swampscott took the road less traveled in Friday’s Northeastern Conference bout at Peabody.
The Big Blue saw the resilient Tanners turn an 11-point deficit into a 3-point game before weathering the storm to seal a 48-39 win.
Sophomore guard Cam O’Brien powered Swampscott with a game-high 20 points.
“Cam gives 110 percent the whole game,” Big Blue coach Jason Knowles said. “That’s the one thing we can always count on with Cam. Offensively, Cam stepped up for us in a big way. Some guys came off the bench and hit some big shots. This was a total team effort, especially on the defensive end.”
Joangel Lugo scored 14 of Peabody’s 25 second-half points. The senior guard finished with 16 points, nine on 3-pointers.
“Joangel’s been there for us all year,” Peabody coach Thad Broughton said. “He’s done a really nice job. But we needed that second or third scorer to step up and we struggled a little bit to score. We’ll get back to work and try to improve.
“We dug ourselves into a big hole. We made a nice comeback in the second half but just came up a little bit short.”
Peabody ran out to a swift 4-0 edge with the first two baskets. Swampscott answered with the next two buckets, knotting the score at 4-4 when Andrew Augustin (six points) found a wide-open O’Brien for an easy layup on a 2-on-1 fastbreak. O’Brien followed with a 3-ball to give Swampscott its first lead of the night at 7-6. The Tanners managed to keep close, down 11-10 at the end of the first quarter.
But they froze in the second quarter, with Swampscott holding the Tanners to just two baskets and opening a double-digit lead. O’Brien scored the first three points of the period on a layup and a free throw. Augustin’s 3-pointer forced the Tanners to use a timeout down 20-10 after a 9-0 Big Blue rally. O’Brien kept Swampscott on the right track with another 3-pointer after the timeout. Alex DeNisco (six points) got Peabody back on the scoreboard with a pair of freebies but the Tanners trailed 24-14 at halftime.
“We struggled to score,” Broughton said. “We missed some free throws, we missed some open looks. Credit Swampscott’s defense for that. I thought we picked it up in the second half a little bit but it was just too little, too late.”
Lugo’s jumper with 2:30 left in the third quarter brought Peabody to within five, down 30-25. Swampscott proceeded to build a 7-0 run, highlighted by Jacob Cooke’s corner three. Lugo swished a three of his own and the Tanners trailed 38-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
Swampscott placed itself in position to seal the win with a 40-29 lead two minutes into the final frame.
But Peabody didn’t go down easily.
Lugo’s corner 3-ball with 2:16 remaining made it a 1-possession game at 42-39.
“That was expected,” Knowles said. “Peabody’s a well-coached team. We knew we had to give it 100 percent all four quarters in order to win this game.”
Ensuing hoops from seniors Justin Ratner and Anthony Rakauskas (seven points) were Swampscott’s icing on the cake.
“Our motto is ‘practice wins championships’ and every day in practice we’ll watch some game film, we work on the things necessary in order to keep improving,” Knowles said. “We had a few guys that were a little bit off offensively. The defense picked it up and that carried us.”
The Big Blue (2-4) host Danvers Tuesday (7).
“There’s always room to improve,” Knowles said. “I like the progression. These guys bought into a system and they work hard every single practice. This is a team that’s going to give it all every game.”
Peabody’s (3-2) also back in action Tuesday (7) with a road game at Marblehead.
