BELMONT, YARDEMIAN OUTLAST LEXINGTON 89-73
By Jim Baldwin
Lexington, MA. 12/14/18. Two explosive offenses met on the Lexington basketball court Friday night where the Marauders from Belmont finally wore down the game Minutemen 89-73 behind a school record-setting 46-point performance from senior guard Danny Yardemian.
From the opening tip the game was played at a blistering pace. The Minutemen could not control the electric Yardemian who got to the rim at will, and Belmont had similar difficulty containing Lexington’s brawny post man, the 6’4” 230 pound senior co-captain Kase Cronin.
The teams had combined for 44 points by the end of one (24-20) with Cronin bulling his way to eight first quarter points and most of the rebounds while Yardemian had 13.
The dizzying pace continued and by halftime the teams had combined for an NBA- like 91 points with Belmont ahead by nine at 50 – 41 and Yardemian resting in the locker room with a jaw-dropping 26 in just 16 minutes of action.
Midway through the third quarter with Belmont threatening to break away at 65-51, Lexington coach Reggie Hobbs called time out. His troops came out of the break reenergized. Cronin hit two turnarounds in the lane. Exciting senior slasher Jazin Ayala buried a corner three and cruised to a driving layup. Junior point guard Will Amsler scored on two difficult trips down the lane. A timely 13-4 run, it brought Lexington back to 68-64 with two minutes left in the third.
But Belmont answered early in the fourth. Their three quarter court zone trapping defense, a thorn in the Lexington side all night, became lethal. The Marauders forced turnovers on four consecutive Minuteman possessions and feasted on the transitions turning all of them into points with Yardemian, of course, doing most of the finishing. It created a 13-0 run that decided the game expanding their lead from four to 17 at 81 – 64 with five minutes to play.
Shortly thereafter the splendid newcomer, Ayala, with 16 points in just over three quarters, committed his fifth foul, and Lexington, after quarters of 20, 21 and 23 points managed only nine in the fourth.
The Minuteman attack was balanced. Cronin lead the way with 18, Amsler and Ayala had 16 each and senior guard Dante Otiz, 12.
But Yardemian’s singular excellence was the story. Ironically, he started the game with two missed free throws and if he’d shot better from the line and from outside, he might have had 60. Lexington simply could not stop him from getting to the rim, where he transformed the layup into performance art. Lefty, righty, spinning, reverses, falling down, in traffic, with the massive Cronin in his face, the two-time Middlesex League all-star was a slippery terror. He scored the last 11 of Belmont’s points to end the first quarter, and that was just a preview.
He got help from senior co-captain guard Ben Sseruwagi and sophomore guard Tim Minicozzi with 11 points each and from a shark-like pressing team defense that induced 18 Lexington turn-overs and sped up the game to the frantic pace Belmont prefers.
“I just give ‘em the ball and get out of the way,” Belmont coach Adam Pritchard joked after the game. “I don’t know if anybody in the league can beat us, but they’ll have to play fast,” he added, “’cause we’re not slowing down.”
Wakefield is next up for Lexington, Tuesday 5:30 at home while Belmont hosts Stoneham next Tuesday at 6.