REVERE — The Lynn English boys basketball team opened up Wednesday’s game with a terrible shooting percentage, but after a slow first quarter the Bulldogs were able to turn things around and roll to a 82-22 win over Greater Boston League foe Revere on the road.
“We were really sluggish to start the game and we weren’t really playing how we wanted,” said English coach Antonio Anderson. “It was a shame because we were doing what we needed to do defensively from the jump, but our offense was lagging behind. Luckily we were able to get into a rhythm as the game went on and play better offensively.”
Senior Ademide Badmus stepped up in a big way for English, notching a double-double with 22 points and 19 rebounds. He’s now just eight points away from scoring his 1,000th career point.
Junior Louis Rivera also scored 22 points in the win, while junior Kanye Wavezwa had 10 points and three rebounds. Senior Marvens Rosirus also scored 10 points, while sophomore Joshua St. Jean had seven points and four rebounds.
“It’s always great when you get five or six guys contributing like we did (Wednesday),” said Anderson. “We had guys getting a lot of minutes and making plays all over, and that’s only going to help us down the line.”
For Revere, senior captain Dillan Day had six points and four rebounds. Senior captain Calvin Boudreau had four points and seven rebounds, while senior Randy Urdaneta scored three points.
“We competed hard in the first quarter and did some good things, but in the end our inability to take care of the ball ended up feeding their offense and it was unstoppable,” said Revere coach David Leary. “Playing a team like English will always make you better, so we’ve got to take our lessons from this one and move on.”
It was an incredibly slow start for the Bulldogs, who seemingly couldn’t make a shot or a free throw in the opening minutes of the game. English struggled through the first quarter, but strong defense and solid rebounding kept the Bulldogs ahead 11-4.
Then English turned on the jets.
Behind a number of 3-pointers from Rivera, Wavezwa and Rosirus as well as some strong play from Badmus, the Bulldogs blew their lead wide open in the second quarter. By halftime, English led 35-9 and never looked back.
The second half saw the lead extend to as many as 60 points, with a number of reserves from each team seeing time on the court before English breezed to a victory.
Revere (0-3) takes on Medford Friday.
“We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball, that’s the bottom line,” said Leary. “If we can do that, we can be very competitive out there.”
English (2-0) is back on the court Friday afternoon (4) on the road at Somerville.
“We’ve just got to improve the way we start our games,” said Anderson. “If we can come right out, run our system and make baskets early, we’ll be in much better shape going forward.”
