RallyNorth.net

Knights fall in state semis

Wednesday, March, 14 By Jeff Hamrick

BURLINGTON — During its stellar postseason, North Andover has had multiple dominant quarters, scoring as many as 32 points during one 8-minute span.

And the Scarlet Knights had another stellar quarter in Wednesday’s state semifinal, piling up 20 in a second quarter that saw them turn a deficit into a halftime lead. It was an advantage North Andover built into a 41-33 advantage with 4:10 left in the third.

That’s when the wheels came off the playoff bus, as TechBoston cranked up the defensive pressure, scoring the next 21 points as the Bears ran off with a 65-57 victory at Burlington High.

“We knew having the lead at the half, they were going to press, and obviously that third quarter we couldn’t get anything going,” North Andover coach Paul Tanglis said. “We talked about live ball turnovers and how a live-ball turnover against them is going to be a bucket. And that was pretty much the story for us. We didn’t handle pressure as well as we would’ve liked.”

Playing in the school’s first state final four since winning the second of back-to-back state titles in 1975, North Andover (19-6) overcame a slow start that saw the Bears (24-1) build an 11-point lead less than five minutes into the game.

Junior co-captain Jake McElroy led the rally, scoring seven during a 9-0 run. That stymied a TechBoston start which saw six different Bears score while going 8 of 10 from the floor.

The Knights rode McElroy’s passing in the second quarter, as he made a couple driving dishes that Garrett Murphy turned into lay-ups. North Andover took its first lead 33-31 with 56 seconds left en route to a four-point lead at intermission.

A drive by Darren Watson and a turn-around by McElroy upped the advantage to eight with 4:10 left in the third. But that would be the Knights’ final points until another Watson drive with 5:56 left in the fourth.

“They speed you up, and when you don’t connect, they get out on transition,” Tanglis said of the Bears, who forced 16 of the Knights’ 23 turnovers after intermission. “That’s their game. I think the coach was saying, ‘Let’s keep it going, let’s keep it chaotic.’

“And that fed into them. We weren’t getting buckets and we weren’t getting stops.”

“We went into the game, saying we had to take care of the ball and we didn’t take care of the ball in the second half,” said McElroy, who had five assists and shared team-scoring honors with Watson at 14 points. “They’re a quick, fast team and they didn’t get tired. They kept coming after us and we couldn’t handle it.”

Walter Dew-Hollis, who scored 20 of his game-high 26 after intermission, powered TechBoston. The Bears from Dorchester forced 10 turnovers and scored 21 unanswered during that fateful 6:14 stretch. The Bears had their biggest lead at 60-46 with 2:23 remaining.

Kyle Moore added 13 points for the Knights, who return six of the seven players who scored points Wednesday, losing only defensive standout Chim Ogwuru to graduation.

“At the end of the day, I just told these guys, that I’m so proud of what they’ve done and the history that they made,” Tanglis said. “I have a smile on my face right now. It was a tough loss, but for what they’ve done all year and how they battled, I’m really, really proud to be their coach.”