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Matt Sanborn's deep shooting lifts Lancers

Saturday, January, 19 By Ryan Lambert
Staff writer

Of course, the game was going to have a playoff atmosphere. It was Pinkerton-Londonderry, after all.

Trailing by six with two minutes to go in the first half, Londonderry came roaring back. The Lancers cut the deficit to two at halftime and then scored 26 points in the final two quarters for a 43-36 win over its bordering rival before a packed house at Londonderry High.

"It was an ugly one, both ways," said Lancers coach Jim Zorbas, whose team improved to 5-1 in Class L. "I just think it was a state tournament atmosphere and I think it took us a while to get comfortable. I really don't think we ever got comfortable in the game, but we made enough plays to win. I felt like there was a bit of stage fright which disrupted our rhythm."

Though the Astros' stifling defense held Londonderry to just 17 points in the first half, the Lancers did themselves no favors, missing seven layups.

That was where sophomore Matt Sanborn came in. He sank a pair of threes inside of a minute left, including a buzzer beater, to cut the Pinkerton lead to just two.

Zorbas' assessment was simple: "That was really big." In the locker room, Zorbas preached aggressive defense and energetic offense. The message sunk in.

"Once we got after it on defense, that sparks our offense a lot of the time," said Matt Travalini, who scored a game-high 16 points, including three 3-pointers. "In the locker room, coach told us to just bring more emotion. We carried that into the game and it really just fueled everything. We started making plays."

Londonderry dominated most of the second half at both ends of the court, outscoring Pinkerton 26-17, highlighted by a backbreaking 11-2 run.

Despite getting knocked down and landing hard on his head while attempting a shot, junior Beau Cassidy scored 14 points to lead Pinkerton, which slipped to 3-3 in Class L.

"Beau's a good, hard-working kid," said Astros coach Peter Rosinski. "He banged his head, and he went to the line. I know he had a dinger. His eyes were dilated. I said, 'Do you want to come out?' He said, 'No, no, I'm good!' I think he'll be alright. He's a tough kid."

Pinkerton did cut into the lead a bit. The Astros were down by 10 with 2:30 to play, and shots that hadn't been falling started doing so. They cut the lead to four before Londonderry took over again.

"Some nights the ball drops, some nights it doesn't," said Rosinski. "We were down by 10, and they could have ended up blowing us out. But the kids buckled down, we came roaring right back, and I thought we had a chance to tie them or take the lead. I was real proud of these kids. They played hard. Any time you hold a team under 50 points, you feel like you did well defensively."

The offense, however, was a different matter.