SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott boys basketball team put on a clinic in the first half of Wednesday evening’s game against East Boston in the Richard “Dick” Lynch gym.
That was enough to withstand a furious comeback attempt by the Jets in the second half so that the Big Blue came away with a 79-66 win for their 12th victory in a row.
“We came out in the first half and did what we were supposed to do and we jumped out to a big lead,” said Big Blue coach Jason Knowles. “But we knew they were good. They had a big win (Tuesday night) against Revere, so we knew they could play.
“In the second half, we missed some shots, and they got a run going, and made a valiant attempt,” he said.
The numbers in this one don’t lie. Right out of the gate, Swampscott was on fire, and outscored the Jets 23-14 in the first quarter.
But the damage was done in the second period. The Big Blue scored the first 13 points of the quarter before Eastie could finally get a bucket. By halftime, it was 49-24 and it looked as if this would be a runaway.
Big guns for Swampscott in the first half were Evan Roth, who scored 15 of his game-high 20 points; and Ryan Ward, who also had 15 en route to a total of 19 points.
But if you thought East Boston was going to go quietly you’d have been wrong. The Jets, who came into the game with a 9-6 record, got back-to-back hoops from Christian Sanders (nine points) to start the quarter and Eastie was off and running with a 10-2 run. And after Swampscott’s Riad Benagour scored a three and a two to boost Swampscott’s lead back up to 22 (56-34), the Jets took off on a 10-0 run to carve their deficit down to 12 (56-44). And Swampscott led by only 10 (61-51) at the end of the quarter.
“I think that has been something we’ve done all year,” Knowles said. “We’ll play three good quarters and one not so good. So far, that’s worked out for us, but I’d like to see us play four strong quarters.”
The Big Blue righted the ship in the fourth quarter, however, and were able to play some of the bench players who don’t usually see much time.
Liam Wales also had a strong game for the Big Blue with 13 points.
Swampscott raises its record to 14-4 and will be home Friday night against Lynn Tech.
