LYNN — The objective of both teams Friday night: suffocate.
With host Lynn English (Division 1; 1-1) taking on Burke (Division 4; 1-0) in a battle of two 16-win teams from last winter, separation was hard to find.
Both sides brought a stifling press.
“It’s intense,” said English coach Alvin Abreu, whose Bulldogs fell, 91-60, after trailing by just nine points at halftime. “But that’s why we schedule games like that. We want our guys battle-tested by the time March comes. You want to play games like that with different styles.”
Abreu will tell you himself that “It was a battle in the first half.” Burke led, 50-41, after Denzell Guillen (11 first-half points) helped keep English in the game with his 3-point shooting.
The sharpshooter wasn’t hesitating, either.
“He can do so much. He can rebound, pass, and defend,” Abreu said of Guillen, who finished with 16 points. “He really is a killer and can do a lot of things… and, most importantly, his IQ is the best on our team and the best I’ve seen around.”
But the record stopped spinning in the second half. Burke went on a 14-3 run to open the third quarter, then kicked the doors open to jump ahead, 73-50, after three.
“Credit to them. They really jumped on us in the third quarter, got it to 11 (points), then started pushing up that lead,” Abreu said. “We got a piece of humble pie for us to continue to build on.”
English scored just three points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. When asked about the offensive struggles, Abreu didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“We’re not in shape,” he said. “Before our first game, we had less than a week of practice, so obviously, both teams, nobody’s in shape right now. I think that definitely played a factor in us not making shots in the second half. We had a lot of looks early on. In the third quarter, they just weren’t falling.”
The second-half highlight was a two-handed dunk from Junior Hernandez off a Burke turnover in the third quarter. Louis Ledesma (19 points) caught eyes with a falling shot on the baseline – plus the foul – in the fourth.
But other than that, Burke’s transition play, 3-point shooting, and finishing ability were too much for English, which had no answers on the defensive side of the ball.
“I’m very, very disappointed in our defensive effort, as I was last night (90-80 win against Medford on Thursday),” Abreu said. “We’re letting guys get downhill on us and score a bunch of points. We’re not bought in on the defensive end, and that starts with me. You’re not going to beat anybody if you’re giving up points.”
Next up for English is a road game in Everett beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
