SWAMPSCOTT — At times Tuesday night, it didn’t look as if this game would come down to the buzzer.
But sure enough, with 2.3 seconds to go in the fourth quarter Tuesday, Swampscott was inbounding the ball in a tie game after having been up by as much as 14 points.
Two passes later, 6-foot-2 Big Blue sophomore Ryan Ward launched one from about 12 feet to the left of the basket that hit nothing but net to give his team a 54-52 win for its sixth straight victory.
Ward’s bucket was one of eight points he scored, all of them in the second half, when Swampscott didn’t have much else going for it. The Blue went into the locker room after the first two periods with a 34-22 lead, and it was Peabody, not the Big Blue, struggling to generate any offense. But the script got flipped in the second half. After Ward started off the period with a hoop, Peabody went off on a 14-2 run to catapult itself back into the game, 38-36.
The big star for the Tanners during the run was senior forward Luke Roan, who scored nine of his team-high 18 points.
Swampscott answered the Tanners with a 10-2 quarter-closing run of its own to bring the lead back up to 10 (48-38).
However, the two teams were just getting warmed up.
“We started hitting some of our shots, and we switched assignments on a couple of kids and got back into it,” said Peabody coach Thad Broughton. “Hats off to them, though, for hitting that shot at the buzzer. They’re a tough team.”
Colin Berube, who was quiet for Peabody in the early going, found the range in the fourth quarter, opening with a 3-pointer (one of two he had in the period enroute to 12 points). Shea Lynch then hit another bucket, and when Roan and Anthony Forte followed with free throws, it was 48-46, Swampscott, with 5:07 left.
“They ramped up their defense in that fourth quarter and got back into it,” said Swampscott coach Jason Knowles. “I have to give us a lot of credit for hanging in there until we could sink that basket at the end.
“You know what they say,” Knowles said. “Basketball is a game of runs, right?”
Evan Roth (game-high 21 points) broke Peabody’s spell with 5:01 to go to make it 50-41, Swampscott. And from there until there was 1:48 to go, nobody could crash the lid on either basket. Finally, Forte sank one to bring Peabody to within two and then hit the foul shot afterward and Peabody was within pne 50-49). Cam O’Brien hit a layup with 58 seconds left to make it a three-point game, but Berube picked the most opportune time for his second three-pointer, with 49 seconds to go.
Each team took a trip up the floor, to no avail, until Swampscott snatched down the rebound of a Peabody miss with 2.3 seconds to go. After a timeout, the Big Blue came back with its winning play.
Peabody (9-5) hosts Danvers Friday night (7).
Swampscott (8-4) hosts East Boston Friday (5:30).
