SAUGUS — If you enjoy fast-paced, end-to-end basketball games, Thursday’s matchup between Marblehead and Saugus was ideal.
The visiting Magicians (3-1) traveled to Saugus (0-3) and walked out with a 76-72 win.
Truth be told, despite the final score, Marblehead had its chances to run away with the game early. The Magicians were up 16 points (29-13) in the second quarter. Saugus continued to battle back and ended the quarter on a 13-5 run to go into halftime down seven (36-29).
“We let them play with confidence and gave them opportunities. We stretched it to 16 early and again to 12 in the second half, and you have to put teams away at that moment,” Magicians’ coach Mike Giardi said. “Give them credit. They hung around.”
In the second half, Saugus’ defense kept forcing Marblehead into turnovers. Sachems’ coach Joe Bertrand praised his team’s effort on that side of the court.
“We told the team if we’re going to do this, they’re going to need to buy in and be aggressive and they were,” Bertrand said. “Credit to Nathan Soroko on the ball and Cam Victor playing in the middle, kind of like a linebacker, and making things difficult for them.”
A player Marblehead had trouble stopping was Saugus’ Huey Josama, who netted 18 points and dominated the glass.
“We, as a coaching staff, have been on him all year and he responded great tonight. It’s not easy when all the coaches are on you constantly, but he responded great and played like a man tonight. It was great to see,” Bertrand said.
Saugus cut the lead to one possession, 66-63, after a Jordan Rodriguez transition three in the fourth quarter. But from there, Marblehead’s Finn Baron scored six straight points to keep the Magicians ahead.
“We’ve been on him to get to the rim. He’s so athletic, so sometimes, he thinks he needs to avoid contact, but in high school basketball, the best thing he can do is finish at the rim,” Giardi said of his sophomore guard.
Junior guard Ryan Shea scored 17 points to keep the Sachems in the game, making play after play in front of the home faithful.
“His energy on defense is what sparks our team. He controls the game. The ball is in his hands a lot and he did a great job taking care of it, scoring when he needed to, and finding the open guy,” Bertrand said.
Late in the game, Josama made a pair of free throws to make it 74-72. A turnover on the inbound pass meant Saugus had a chance to tie or even take the lead.
But Marblehead’s defense stepped up and got a stop before Saugus had to foul to extend the game. Marblehead senior Matthew Sherf made two of his four free throws down the stretch to make it 76-72 and seal the game.
“We’ve played four games already, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, and tonight, so we’re a little bit worn, but all that means is we run a bit more at practice,” Giardi said. “We don’t play again until the 3rd (of January), so we have a lot of work we need to do. We’re a scrappy team, but tonight, we gave Saugus too many opportunities.”
Despite the winless winter, Bertrand liked what he saw from his team.
“Between being down 16 tonight and bouncing back from Tuesday night, I’m proud that our team didn’t quit,” he said. “It would have been easy for us to quit and just go into vacation saying we’ll figure it out, but they were determined to figure it out tonight and I’m proud of them.”
