RallyNorth.net

Tanners drop heartbreaker to Classical

Saturday, December, 22 By Jean DePlacido
Correspondent

Despite a strong performance against an unbeaten team, Peabody suffered another frustrating loss. At the end the breaks didn't go the Tanners way, and they fell to Lynn Classical, 63-62

After losing to English by 40 points three nights ago and not being able to practice Thursday because of the snowstorm, Peabody gave the Rams all they could handle and nearly stole the game at the end.

"I'm incredibly proud of what our guys did in the last two and a half minutes to put themselves in a position to win this game," said Tanner coach Chris Mastrangelo. "Down by seven points after (Quivari) Jackson hit that three, our kids gave the kind of effort any coach would be proud of. We put ourselves in position, but didn't get any breaks. That loss to English was totally embarrassing, but we did a lot of maturing tonight."

The game was tight all the way until Lynn began to pull away late in the fourth quarter when Jasper Grassa and Jackson, who led his team with 16 points, hit back to back layups to open up a seven-point cushion, 59-52. But Kevin Skop, who had a game-high 26 points with three treys, answered at the other end to close the gap to five points with just over two minutes remaining.

Jackson's trifecta gave the Rams what appeared to be a comfortable eight-point bulge, but Peabody scrapped back led by Danny Mello (13 points), who hit two quick hoops and then nailed a pair of foul shots to make it a two-point game with just under a minute remaining.

A controversial non-call occurred with 30 seconds left in regulation when Mello attempted a 3-pointer that hung on the rim before being rejected by Jarell Byrd. Seconds later at the other end of the court what could have been a charge against Tony Johnson was called a foul, leaving the Tanners in need of a 3-pointer to tie. Mello put up a three that didn't fall, but Max Steinberger (12 points) put in the rebound to make it a one-point game.

"We had our chances," said Mastrangelo, whose 1-3 team has lost two games by a total of four points. Mello's three hung on the rim for a full second. He's a senior captain, and had a very good shot. We were trying to foul in the last nine seconds, but they didn't allow us to. Mello was able to get a hand on a ball, but slipped and fell with four seconds left. We would have called a timeout and set up a play if he didn't slip.

"The kids are frustrated right now, but I saw a lot of good things tonight against an excellent Classical club with Byrd, Jackson, and Grassa. Brian Fleming covered Byrd all game and did a very good job. Steinberger is an incredibly smart basketball player, who knows how to get position and is having a good year."

Peabody led by four at the end of one, had a 30-29 halftime advantage, but the visitors were on top by one, 46-37 heading into the final eight minutes as the lead see-sawed back and forth. When asked if he thought goaltending should have been called on Byrd, Classical coach Tom Grassa disagreed.

"No, I didn't think that was goaltending. It was close all the way and seemed like it stayed a one-point game or tied up until the last two or three minutes when we got up by six or eight at one point," said Grassa. "We certainly didn't do anything to help our cause down the stretch. We had three possessions and took a grand total of five seconds off the clock.

"Mastrangelo was telling his guys to foul because he had some to waste, but we were flying down the court. Our clock management was very poor. I will say we're lucky to get out of here with a win."