PEABODY — Last Friday, the Peabody boys basketball team suffered a three-point loss to Beverly. And although coach Thad Brougton isn’t into moral victories, he took something positive from that game.
“It was a tough loss,” said Broughton. “We were so close to Beverly. That’s a talented team, and we were so close. And we don’t take any moral victories. We want to win.
“But I like the way we played in that game. I hoped that it could carry over into (Monday’s) game.”
It did. And then some. The Tanners broke out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 72-48 win over Gloucester to win its first game of the season.
“We started slowly last week (in a loss to Masconomet), and we started fast against Beverly,” Broughton said. “I wanted to get off to a fast start tonight.”
Mission accomplished. Not only that, co-captain Colin Berube shot the lights out — pouring in seven 3-pointers en route to a game-high 23 points. Berube wasn’t the only Tanner knocking them in from downtown, as Peabody hit 11 of them in all.
“Colin had the hot hand,” said Broughton, “but that’s not all he is. He’s worked tirelessly on his game. He plays defense and helps run the offense.”
Very little went wrong for the Tanners. They got threes from Berube, Nick Soper and Luke Roan en route to sprinting to a 17-7 lead midway through the first quarter. Gloucester absorbed that hit, closing the gap to 17-12 by the end of the quarter thanks to a three by PJ Zappa and another hoop by Acam Borowick, who led the Fishermen with 19 points.
But Peabody put on its track shoes again to start the second quarter. The Tanners scored 17 straight points, 12 of them coming off three-pointers by Berube, before Borowick tried to stem the tide with a three of his own to make the score 33-15.
The Tanners put on another impressive offensive volley to open the third quarter with an 11-3 run to go up 46-18. And at the end of three, it was 54-25.
Most of the fourth quarter was played with subs, but Peabody maintained its torrid shooting throughout.
Luke Roan finished with 11 points for Peabody, with Anthony Forte scoring nine, Shea Lynch eight and Soper seven.
“I also thought we played good defense,” said Broughton. “The guards pressing caused a lot of turnovers.”
Peabody (1-2) is at home Wednesday against Saugus.
