For a moment Friday night, previous opponents of Marblehead’s boys basketball team must have been thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ harkening back to the Magicians’ Elite 8 run a winter ago.
And for three quarters, it looked like déjà vu with No. 2 Leominster leading No. 34 Marblehead just 54-53.
But in the end, the host Blue Devils caught fire in the fourth, catapulting them to a 78-58 victory in the Division 2 Round of 32.
“Unfortunately, we ran out of gas in the fourth,” said Marblehead coach Mike Giardi. “We were down one after three quarters, but only scored five points in the fourth. They got hot, scoring 24.”
Nick Lemmond led the Magicians with 26 points, followed by Ryan Commoss (16) and Scott Campbell (15).
“The kids played hard, but just couldn’t sustain it after an overtime game the other night,” said Giardi, whose side defeated No. 31 Melrose, 64-61, in the aforementioned preliminary round.
Marblehead finished the season 14-8, while Leominster, 18-3, advanced to the Sweet 16 against No. 15 Scituate.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Xaverian 76
Peabody 36
Talk about a hot hand. No. 5 Xaverian’s Lorenzo Carrara netted 35 points by the end of the third quarter in Friday night’s Division 1 Round of 32 against No. 28 Peabody. He also scored his 1,000th point in the victory.
Peabody stuck around for a quarter, trailing just 20-12, but Xaverian’s lead ballooned to 39-18 by halftime.
For the Tanners, 19-3, it was all downhill from there. Anthony Forte led the way with 12 points, followed by Raphel Laurent, Johnny Lucas, and Aneudy Medrano who all netted six.
Peabody defeated No. 37 Belmont, 50-43, on Tuesday.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Cathedral 100
Lynn Tech 33
No. 33 Lynn Tech ran into a freight train in No. 1 Cathedral Friday night, falling 100-33 in a Division 4 matchup on the road.
Engelyz Bingham led Tech with 15 points, three rebounds, and an assist. Fellow contributors included Allison Morales (11 points, 5 rebounds, block, assist) and Aliyah Volquez (6 points, 5 rebounds, block).
Behind coach Kaitlyn Wechsler, Tech finished its season 14-7 with an upset win against No. 33 Upper Cape Cod RVT in the preliminary round.
