BYFIELD — When you’re a young basketball team like the Lynnfield Pioneers, there are bound to be nights like this.
After getting off to a good start early in the first quarter, the Lynnfield boys basketball team made a number of youthful mistakes en route to a 64-48 loss to Triton in a Cape Ann League battle on the road Friday night.
“It’s just one of those things where we make mistake after mistake, and as a young team it’s hard to come back from that, ” said Lynnfield coach John Bakopolus, whose team has only two seniors. “The fight was there the whole way and our guys battled hard, but in the end it’s tough to come back from making so many mistakes and putting yourself in a hole like that.”
Freshman Gavin Deluties led the way in the loss for Lynnfield, notching 16 points and six rebounds. Freshman Alex Fleming put up a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, while junior Cam Marengi had eight points and three rebounds. Senior Mekhi Peters (seven points, four rebounds) and junior Steven Dreher (five points, two rebounds) also played well for the Pioneers.
“Gavin and Alex have been our two top guys so far, and they’ve really come into their own over the past few weeks,” said Bakopolus. “I think they’re finally comfortable being varsity players and they’re really starting to lead the way.”
It was a great start for the Pioneers, who came out hot offensively and intense defensively. Lynnfield quickly put up a 9-2 lead in the opening minutes, and looked like it had Triton off balance the whole time.
But the tide turned once the Vikings started to heat up from the field. After Triton made a couple of shots, it employed a press defense that caught the young Pioneers off guard and resulted in a number of turnovers. The Vikings turned those turnovers right into points, and by the end of the first quarter the score was tied 10-10.
That trend continued into the second quarter, but the two sides kept trading the lead back and forth in the opening minutes of the frame. But with about two minutes to play, the Vikings seized control and took a seven-point lead (26-19) into the halftime break.
Things only went downhill from there, as the veteran Vikings — who were celebrating their seven seniors on Senior Night — continued to control the pace of play behind the efforts of forward Quintin McHale. Lynnfield fell behind by as many as 14 points before Triton was able to take a 46-35 lead into the final frame.
The fourth was much of the same, with Triton stretching its lead to 15 points before Lynnfield battled back to get the deficit to single digits. But after one final surge, Triton remained ahead for good and was able to coast to the victory.
Lynnfield (1-10) travels to Georgetown Tuesday (6:30).
“Nothing changes for us, we’re just going to keep coming out and fighting every day,” said Bakopolus. “We’ve got eight games left and a ton of guys coming back next year, so we know that this is a great opportunity for us to continue building.”
