ARLINGTON SURVIVES READING VISIT 47-44
Arlington, MA. 1/18/19. Thanks to some alert, late game defense from senior co-captain Nick Karalis and clutch offense from sophomore point guard Brendan McNamara the Arlington boys basketball team held off the visiting Reading Rockets Friday night 47 -44.
After a desultory and downright sloppy first half that saw the teams combine for a miserly 34 points, a basketball game broke out as the second half started with Arlington taking a 10-point lead midway through a 20 point third quarter.
Asked what he said to energize his team at halftime a laconic Spy Ponder coach John Bowler said, “Oh, we just told ‘em they had to play better.”
Sometimes coaching is easy.
Reading fought back, though, and from the end of the third and into the fourth quarter staged a 12-2 run, led by senior co-captain Matt Sanella. His top of the circle three was also his seventh point of the run, and with 4:38 left Arlington’s lead was gone, suddenly behind for the first time 41-39. But that would be the end of Sanella’s scoring for the night.
After Spy Ponder senior co-captain James Gascoigne tied it up with a hoop in the lane, Bowler called a time out and did the unthinkable. His Spy Ponders came out of the break in a rare—for them— match up zone defense, with Karalis inserted to shadow Sanella. The Rockets would score only three points the rest of the way.
Bowler said, “We went zone for a few possessions, and I think it messed them up a little. Sanella had made some good moves, some tough shots, and I thought Nick did a really good job on him down the stretch.”
With the defensive minded Karalis glued to him, Sanella cooled off, the zone generated two quick steals and Arlington found some critical extra possessions. McNamara hit a short jumper on one of them to put the Spy Ponders up two. 43-41.
Then with 90 seconds left Karalis alertly stole a Rocket outlet pass after an Arlington miss, drove to the hoop and, as the defenders converged, slipped a behind the back pass to an open Steven McGillivray. The senior hit the easy lay-up to make it 45-41 for the hosts.
“That was a big play by Nick,” Bowler said, “and McGillivray was huge for us tonight with 10 points and a bunch of rebounds.”
A Rocket free throw from senior Pat Conroy made it 45-42 and still anybody’s game with 35 seconds left.
But Arlington held the ball effectively with a 30 second possession that ended perfectly with McNamara’s determined drive down the lane that he finished with a difficult soaring lay-up to put the game out of Reading’s reach 47-42 with only 5 seconds left.
“Brendan’s basket was big,” said Bowler adding, “I thought we showed really good resilience after giving up that lead.”
Reading junior Taylor Marchant scored on an uncontested put back at the buzzer for the 47-44 final score.
Gascoigne led Arlington with 12 points. McNamara had 11 and McGillivray 10.
Sanella led all scorers with 13.
Arlington hosts Cathedral in a non-league game next Tuesday night at 7.