LYNNFIELD — This one went south in a hurry.
The Pioneers’ boys basketball team was cruising along against visiting Georgetown. With less than 30 seconds to go in the first half, the Pioneers had built a 33-22 lead after Chris Daniels drained a long 3-pointer and still had a decent 33-24 lead at halftime.
Unfortunately for the Pioneers, the second half – particularly the third quarter – turned out to be a nightmare as the Royals won the battle at both ends of the court, handing the Pioneers a 67-56 loss.
“They’re a tough team as they have six or seven kids who can hit threes,” Lynnfield head coach John Bakopolus said. “It’s just tough when that happens because you can’t cover the whole court sometimes. We knew coming in they were a good shooting team.”
Georgetown head coach Josh Keilty said the game was a “big opportunity” for the Royals to assess how they stack up against larger teams.
“Lynnfield is a really good team,” Georgetown head coach Josh Keilty said. “John does a really good job over there. We know where we stacked up against them. They’re a big team and can hit shots and they play really hard and also we knew it would be tough because we are so much smaller than they are.”
Lynnfield towered over most of the Royals, yet Keilty said he wasn’t surprised the Pioneers didn’t try to exploit the advantage by forcing the ball into the paint.
“They have so many kids who can do so many things,” he said. “They can hit from the outside. I mean they were killing us in the first half, but we played more of our game in the second half with our pressure and defense.”
Lynnfield came out shooting from the opening tip-off. Zach Pincus drained a 3-pointer on the Pioneers’ first possession and finished the quarter with a healthy 18-10 lead, thanks in part to Paul Breslow, who contributed six points coming in off the bench.
As they did to start the game, the Pioneers started strong in the second half with Harris Jadzihansanovic swishing a three to bump the lead to 12, 36-24. The bad news was the Royals went on a 27- 5 tear to close out the quarter with a 49-41 lead. They kept their foot on the gas in the fourth, outscoring the Pioneers by a 19-15 margin to seal the win. Lynnfield did the deficit down to six, 55-49 with about three minutes to go after Daniels and Alex Fleming converted one free throw each sandwiched around a Hadzihansanovic bucket, but that was as close as they came in this one.
Hadzihansanovic paced the Pioneers with 14 points. Daniels finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocked shots, while Fleming finished with 12 points, a team-high 14 rebounds and two steals. Breslow finished with eight points and two steals. Iain McCarthy (6 points) and Zach Pincus (3 points) also scored.
Truth be told, the Pioneers had an off night at the free-throw line. In 31 trips, they made only 15.
“I think that is one of the big problems today. We just missed a lot of free throws,” Lynnfield head coach John Bakopolus said. “It’s kind of just as simple as that. We had a few times that we were 0-for-2 and you just can’t win games against good teams shooting poorly from the free throw line.”
As of Jan. 26, the Pioneers (9-4) are ranked No. 29 in the MIAA Division 3 power rankings. The top 32 teams qualify for the tournament regardless of record.
“A game like this obviously doesn’t help,” Bakopolus said.
Lynnfield’s next game is Thursday at North Reading at 7 p.m. Georgetown (10-4) is back in action Thursday at home against Amesbury (6:30 p.m.).
