I had to cover this game on the evening of the new President's inauguration. Not to get political but...leave it to some high school kids to restore my faith in humanity. Pure, innocent competition and intensity. Wonderful game. I feel better.
ARLINGTON PULLS AWAY FROM WINCHESTER 71-61
WINCHESTER, MA. January 20, 2017. Arlington High basketball coach John Bowler held a quick class in defense 101 at half time Friday night. It’s a good thing. His charges, down 33-32 at the break, had just allowed the host Winchester Sachems to shoot a scorching 70 percent in the first half.
Fortunately, the Spy Ponders heeded their coach’s words and committed themselves to nasty nose-to-nose defense in the second half holding Winchester to 40 percent shooting, and forcing 7 turnovers on their way to a 71-61 win over their stubborn hosts to maintain their unbeaten streak in the Middlesex Liberty Division.
About his half time instructions coach Bowler said, “We talked about communicating on defense. We weren’t talking to each other, and they got a lot of open looks in that first half.”
And the second half? “We moved much better,” Bowler said. “We didn’t get lost on screens. We gave them very few open looks and created some turnovers that gave us some easy baskets. And that was the difference.”
Still, this game was about a lot more than just defense. Winchester opened the action hitting their first 6 shots, 2 of them 3’s resulting in an early 8 point lead, but behind their two dynamic guards senior Colin McNamara and junior Dominic Black, the Spy Ponders actually got the lead back at 17-15 with 1:21 left in the quarter.
From there the teams went back and forth until Arlington spurted at 1:52 of the 3rd behind a tie-breaking 3 pointer from sophomore guard Nick Karalis followed by a McNamara steal leading to two free throws and a 5 point Spy Ponder lead.
With the game seemingly in the balance, the Sachems splendid junior guard Liam Fitzpatrick scooped up a loose ball in the lane and laid it in to cut the lead back to 3 only to see Black calmly sink a 3 point dagger seconds later building Arlington’s lead back to 51-45 at the end of 3.
The Spy Ponders put the game away in the 4th quarter behind 2 key steals (of his 4 for the game) by McNamara and clutch free throw shooting by all three guards, McNamara, Black and Karalis who hit 12 of 14 freebies combined in the 4th quarter. The threesome accounted for 16 of Arlington’s 20 points in the final stanza.
It seemed at times that the Sachem’s Fitzpatrick, with 25 points and Arlington’s McNamara with 27 were engaged in their own personal duel. With Winchester down 13 and just 2 minutes to play, Fitzpatrick scored 9 points trying to bring the Sachems back, 2 of them on an unlikely second effort offensive rebound as he was falling to the floor.
But McNamara answered with two drives down the lane, the second one, closing the door on Winchester at 70-55 with under a minute left.
Black gave McNamara lots of help as usual with his heady floor play and 19 points as did Karalis with 11 including his tide turning 3 pointer. Sophomore forward James Gascoigne added 10 points and along with junior center Ben Wasco was very active on the boards.
For the Sachems senior guard Brennan Clarke had 12, junior forward Mario DiBenedetto had 10 and sophomore guard Joe McCarron 8.
The Spy Ponders are at Wilmington next Tuesday night at 6 while the Sachems host Wakefield also at 6 next Tuesday.