ARLINGTON DEFENSE STYMIES WINCHESTER 61-48
Winchester, MA. 1/4/19. Employing their trademark, in your shirt defense, the Arlington boys basketball team held host Winchester to seven fourth quarter points while scoring 19 to secure a difficult 61-48 win Friday night.
“Defensively, we played great, especially in that fourth quarter,” said Arlington mentor John Bowler. “And all of our guys contributed with pressure. You hold a team to 48 points, you give yourself a pretty good chance of winning.”
With just a point separating the teams at each of the first three quarter marks, this didn’t feel like a 13-point game. In fact, when senior point guard and co-captain Joe McCarron hit a difficult driving layup with under a minute left in the third, it put the Sachem’s up 41-39.
But Arlington senior co-captain Sam Swift answered with a key 3-pointer just before the buzzer to re-take the lead at 42-41.
It was a lead the Spy Ponders would not relinquish. Senior forward Stephen MacGillivray and junior guard Phillip Cherrie both put back offensive rebounds in traffic, senior co-captain James Gascoigne scored twice and Arlington opened the fourth quarter with a quick 8-0 run.
But the hosts clawed their way back behind senior co-captain Michael Tavilla, a beast around the rim all night with 18 points, and senior guard Luivart Berrios, whose two freebies at the 3:30 mark brought Winchester within six at 52-46.
Enter Arlington point guard Brendan McNamara. The sophomore’s calm corner three with three minutes left brought the lead back to a much safer nine points. Then, with the Sachems forced to foul, Arlington kept the ball in McNamara’s hands and the sophomore hit all four of his free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
For the night McNamara was a perfect seven for seven from the line and led Arlington with 20 points while Gascoigne and Swift added 14 and 11.
Cherrie had seven, all coming in the second half.
Tavilla, using deft baby hooks with either hand in the low post, led Winchester with 18 points. Joe McCarron, hampered with foul trouble and the hounding of McNamara’s tight defense, still managed eight points.
The win takes Arlington to 4-1 in the Middlesex Liberty just a game behind streaking Belmont who leads the league at 5-0.
Arlington travels to Wakefield next for a Tuesday night game at 6.