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Rocker tops 1,000

Friday, January, 24 By Jeff Hamrick

METHUEN – Playing on the road Friday night, Andover’s Kyle Rocker banked in a three pointer from about 60 feet to beat the halftime buzzer.

But that wasn’t even the second-best thing that happened to the Warrior senior.

Not only did he help Andover roll to a 65-53 victory over Methuen, but with a tick over two minutes left in the fourth, Rocker scored his 16th point of the game on a driving layup and became the 10th player in program history to top 1,000 points.

“The emotions are crazy right now,” said Rocker who added one more bucket a half minute later to cap his night. “It was always a dream of mine to get a thousand. That was the first thing I put on my list when I came to high school was to get to a thousand, and to actually get it is surreal. It’s actually like a dream. All the hard work I’m putting in is starting to pay off right now.”

Rocker, who flashed a smile only when the team took a quick picture while the game was stopped before reclaiming his normal stoic expression, finished a half point below his season average of 18.5 points. He is the fourth Warrior this decade to join the 1,000-point club and first since EJ Perry in 2017.

“I will just say this: he came into Andover High School as a little boy,” coach David Fazio said of his star. “He’s going to leave Andover High School as a grown, intelligent player slash person. I have so much admiration for him.

“He’s National Honor Society. He’s a hard worker. He listens, and he handles my wrath. He’s very serious about his academics and he’s very serious about his athletics, but in the locker room with his teammates he’s been known to cut up a rug. I’m really proud of him.”

A couple other Warriors were serious against Methuen (3-7 MVC, 5-8 overall). Big man Aidan Cammann scored 13 of his team-high 21 in the second half and added 10 rebounds while Michael Slayton took advantage of open space for a season-high 13 points with eight rebounds and four assists.

“Please put in there ‘don’t cover Slayton,’ ” Fazio said. “Just don’t cover him, and we’ll live with what he’s doing. Aidan is going to be amazing. I have to keep reminding myself he’s only a sophomore. Some of the things he does is just beautiful to watch. Other times he’s taking a fall away and I want to kill him.”

Andover jumped to an 11-point lead at the seven-minute mark, but Methuen rallied with an 18-5 run to take a 24-22 lead when freshman Anesti Touma scored his first varsity points on a baseline drive with 2:05 left in the second.

But Andover closed the half on a 10-2 run to reclaim control. The Warriors took their biggest lead at 52-37 on a Cammann three-point play with 5:57 remaining in the fourth. Andover, which had 15 more field goals than turnovers, connected on 59.1% of its shots (29-49).

“We’re 8-5,” Fazio said. “That’s 13 games and we’ve played 10 games on the road. We haven’t even played at home. We have five of our next seven at home. I’m so happy to be at home Tuesday night against Central. I just feel like we’ve been on the road forever.”

Mitchell Crowe continued to lead Methuen with a game-high 24 points, including five three’s. No other Ranger scored more than eight as Methuen once again had more three-point field goals (11) than two-pointers (seven).