RallyNorth.net

Wed, Dec 23, 2009 07:45 PM @ Lawrence

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Pinkerton	17	9	6	11	53
Lawrence	11	19	9	17	56

Alicea, Lawrence overcome Astros' late 7-point lead

Wednesday, December, 23 By Michael Muldoon
Staff writer

LAWRENCE — Paul Neal had glowing praise — with a major qualification — after his Lawrence club put it together late to beat Pinkerton.

"It was a great win, given how bad we played,'' said Neal.

Lawrence certainly didn't bring its ''A'' game most of the way and Pinkerton was ready to post one of its bigger wins in years. Until it all unraveled late in their first-round Greater Lawrence Christmas game last night.

Trailing by 7 with just over three minutes to play, Lawrence used some inspired play from junior guard Jaylen Alicea (26 points, 14 in the final 9:26) to pull it out and improve to 4-1.

"He carried us offensively,'' said Neal. "He kept us in it offensively.''

The repeated use of "offensively'' wasn't coincidental. Lawrence did not turn in one of its better performance on the defensive end as 6-4 Ben Proulx (20 points) and 6-7 Zach Mathieu (16 points) feasted on the Lancers inside.

A Mathieu hoop and an acrobatic lay-up by Chad Park extended the Astros' lead to 51-44 with 3:35 left.

Dawrin Pereyra buried a corner 3-pointer out of a timeout and after a tough Proulx 10-footer Alicea (4 treys) nailed a 3 from the wing and Michael Calzetta scored an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie it at 53-53 with 2:21 left.

After playing so well for nearly 30 minutes, Pinkerton seemed to wear down, committing three turnovers and missing two chippies in the final 2:21.

Alicea sank three of four from the line in the final 1:15 but Pinkerton still had a chance. Proulx launched a desperation 23-footer at the buzzer but for one of the few times all night he didn't find the bottom of the net.

 "That's the sign of a good team when you don't play your best and you still win,'' said Neal, whose club trailed by 10 points late in the third. "Give Pinkerton credit, they were ready to go. I think we just thought we'd walk in and get a win.''