LYNN — Lynn Classical’s girls basketball team defined the word ‘versatile’ Thursday night. The host Lady Rams had 10 scorers en route to a 46-18 win against Chelsea.
Coach Tom Sawyer was pleased with the diverse scoring, which was led by underclassmen.
“We got 10 people in the scoring column, which was nice,” he said. “We were led by sophomore Jada Tejada (7 points), junior Savannah Tang (7), and junior Nevaeh Eth (6).”
The Lady Rams got out to a dominant 20-0 start. Once the game was in control, Sawyer gave some varsity minutes to his underclassmen.
Needless to say, some took advantage of the opportunity.
“We’ve got a couple of kids who got their first varsity points,” Sawyer said. “Yarilenny Ruiz (3 points) and Gianna Laft (4) got their first varsity points today, which was great to see.”
One player who left it all out there was sophomore Deleisha Perez (4 points). She was everywhere on the defensive end, on top of her playmaking duties as a point guard.
When asked to describe her game, Sawyer pointed straight to her energy.
“Deleisha has one speed and that’s 100 miles per hour, which is great,” he said. “She really gets after it defensively and in transition, which we saw today with some deflections, steals, and layups.”
The Lady Rams led 26-10 and stretched it to 32-14 by the end of the third quarter. Despite being in control, Sawyer still wanted to see his team execute on both ends of the floor.
“No matter who you’re playing, you want to be playing at your best,” he said. “That’s what we did and there were times tonight when I think we executed very well.”
From tip-off until the final whistle, Classical’s bench players – with every bucket – were standing and cheering.
“I think that’s important. I like to think that’s our culture. We’re a team,” Sawyer said. “On different nights, players may have different roles and we try to talk about embracing the role and being happy in the role and with your teammates.”
With the postseason clinched and just two regular season games remaining, Sawyer is looking for his team to start playing its best basketball to close the season.
“We have Georgetown, who beat us here, and then we play against Medford, which only has three league losses,” he said. “We just want to be playing our best basketball heading into the postseason and we have some really good competition through the last week of the season.”
Classical will travel to Georgetown for a 6:30 p.m. game on Monday.
