The beat goes on. Arlington's 16th straight league win. Lexington seems to be without a true point guard. Not a good thing against Arlington's predatory pressing defense. Turnovers. Transition. Tempo. Just what Bowler wants.
ARLINGTON TURNS OVER LEXINGTON 82-50
Lexington’s boys basketball team opened their game at Arlington Tuesday night as few Spy Ponder opponents have running out impressively to a 6-0 lead. Unfortunately, it seemed only to poke the beast.
Arlington responded with the four minutes of mayhem that coach John Bowler loves.
In that short time frame the Spy Ponders opportunistic full court trapping press generated five steals, caused eight Lexington turnovers and created easy shots resulting in a 24-5 run on their way to a 31 point first quarter that essentially decided the outcome, a resounding 82-50 Spy Ponder victory.
“The transition game is our strength,” Bowler said. “In that first quarter run we did some trapping that got the game going at our tempo. Made them play faster than they wanted to and created easy hoops for us.”
The instigators of the run were the usual suspects, co-captains junior Dominic Black and senior Colin McNamara. It seemed that McNamara was part of Lexington’s backcourt as he came up with four steals during the run. Black added a steal, and the duo combined for 15 of the 24 points.
Together, they were Lexington’s worst nightmare.
“Black is a real match-up problem,” Bowler observed.
Indeed. He was too quick for Lexington’s longer defenders, and he took advantage of the smaller ones by posting them up down low on his way to a game high 28 points.
McNamara added 15 and had a big game defensively with five steals and induced a five-second violation. Freshman Bensley Joseph chipped in with 13 including a momentum building 3-pointer during the first quarter run.
Junior guard Jack Amsler was strong for the Minutemen with 20 points on an array of long threes, turn-arounds and drives down the lane.
Lexington senior post man Spencer Kendall had 10 first half points, but fouled out early in the second which contributed to Lexington’s difficulties.
Assessing the win Bowler concluded, “It was a great team effort. All 10 players played, all ten scored. We defended well. On offense we shared the ball. Great team win.”
Arlington is just one win shy of completing an undefeated season in the Middlesex Liberty Division. Winchester, Thursday night at 6 in Arlington is the last hurdle.
“Winchester is good,” said Bowler adding, “They’re playing for a high seed in the tournament, too, so they’ll come in here really wanting a win.”