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Warriors remain perfect

Friday, February, 12 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER – Finding cohesion in a sports year like none other can be a difficult endeavor. But in a Covid-shortened campaign, the Andover boys found regularity with winning.

The Golden Warriors closed out the 10-game season Friday evening, running away from North Andover for a 66-47 victory to remain perfect. The Warriors will look to back up its MVC regular-season title next week with a successful postseason tournament.

“We’re trying to play for the seniors to hopefully go undefeated if we can do it,” junior Aidan Camman said. “They didn’t get the season they wanted, but if we could give them the best season they can have, it would be great. It would be awesome to (go undefeated).”

Scoring at a 16.3 points-per-game clip, Cammann is a big reason for that optimism, and the 6-foot-9 center showed off his attributes with a solid outing against North Andover (3-7).

The right-handed Cammann finished with a game-high 21 points often using a solid left hand when maneuvering in the low post. All seven of his field goals came in the paint. The junior had 13 rebounds, six blocks and four assists.

“We want to play inside out,” Andover coach Dave Fazio said. “Sometimes we play outside in, which is what we don’t want to do. We need to get to the paint whether it’s a pass or dribble penetration. Sometimes we’re just on the perimeter with pass, pass, pass … and we end up getting a bad shot.

“That’s the fine line as a coach because you don’t want to call the play every single time down. You don’t want to keep getting the ball inside to the big guy. I mean, you’d love to, but you can’t. He’s tired, people are grabbing and holding him … but that’s the game.”

The Warrior big guy, however, has more than enough support, even with three missing players who are wrapping up a week of Covid-protocol quarantine.

Luke Poirier (13 points), Zayn Aruri (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Ryan MacLellan (eight points) each supplied critical second-half buckets when Andover broke open the game. And Jack Cloutier and Jared Moses came off the bench to cap off a 10-0 third-quarter run with back-to-back field goals that provided a 44-31 lead late in the third.

The Warriors picked up the pace after intermission, getting out on the break to bust open an eight-point halftime lead.

“Here’s the deal, we (practice) green and gold,” said Fazio, whose squad is winning by an average margin of 19.8 points. “Green is go. When we have the numbers we want to go, and we want to score. But when we don’t have numbers, we have to treat the ball like it’s gold. That’s the difference there.”

North Andover, which dropped a 22-point decision to the Warriors on Wednesday, suffered through a couple droughts in the second half that left the Knights scoreless for more than four minutes in the third and three minutes in the fourth.

“You almost have to play a perfect possession to get a stop (against Andover),” North Andover coach Paul Tanglis said. “I called them out after the first game because I didn’t think they dug in defensively, and I thought we did that tonight. I thought we had a chance down the stretch if we hit some shots, but we just couldn’t get them to fall … I’m proud of the effort, but we have to clean a few things up and hit some open shots.”

The Warriors, like the rest of the conference teams, received good news with the recently announced Merrimack Valley Conference Cup post-season tournament.

“We want to make the best of what have right now,” Camman said. “We’re all happy to be out on the court playing. No one really expected that we would. We’re happy to get every game in that we can. But higher pressure games are always something to look forward to. We were really happy when we heard that news.”