RallyNorth.net

Andover kicks off tough week with win

Monday, February, 14 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER — Although it was nothing close to scintillating, Andover did just enough down the stretch to win its rivalry game against visiting North Andover last night.

The sixth-ranked Golden Warriors first prevented the Scarlet Knights from running away and hiding in the second quarter, then survived a fourth-quarter drought that lasted 5 1/2 minutes before eking out a 51-46 victory. Andover, which defeated North Andover by three in the finals of the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tourney, has won each of the past four outings the past two years against the Knights by a combined 25 points. North Andover has scored fewer than 50 points or fewer in three of those defeats.

“We put on the board to hold them to 50, so we still would have won 51-50,” Andover coach David Fazio said. “Our defense was really good; our offense was pathetic. We were running in quicksand. When you only play seven or eight guys, you run into depth problems. We have to rest our legs, and we have a tough week ahead of us.”

Entering the fourth quarter, Andover held a 44-40 lead, but the Warriors (13-3) did not score again while missing each of their first nine shots until a 3-pointer by Joe Bramanti with 2:32 left. Meanwhile, North Andover (14-4) had problems of its own, missing seven of its first eight shots and going scoreless for a 4:27 stretch after a fastbreak layup by James Warden made the score 44-42 with 5:06 left.

Andover eventually took a 49-44 lead on a driving layup by Bramanti with 1:16 remaining, but North Andover cut the deficit to two on a pair of free throws by Derek Collins and had the ball with 18 seconds left. The Knights ran a weave at the top of the key before setting up a 3-point attempt by Zach Karalis that rolled around the rim and popped back out with 4 seconds left.

“I don’t know what it was down the stretch,” North Andover coach Mike McVeigh said. “I thought we had good shots, and we played good defense at the other end. It was just a matter of execution. I don’t have any problems with the effort tonight.”

Three nights after a tough Cape Ann Conference loss to Wilmington, North Andover (14-4) grabbed a 12-point lead late in the second quarter, during which Karalis scored 10 of his team-high 15 points. But Bramanti, who finished with a game-high 27, sparked a run that saw Andover score the final seven points of the half en route to a 17-2 run, which matched the same run North Andover had in the second.

“It was definitely good to get the momentum going,” said Bramanti, who had a killer dunk that capped a fast break early in the third. “We really needed to come out in the second half and put a punch into them, get the lead and get rolling.”

The Golden Warriors now play three teams ranked in the top 20 over the next week and a half, including games against No. 2 Central Catholic on Thursday and top-ranked St. John’s on Saturday in the Comcast Tournament before closing the season against No. 20 Brockton.

“It’s definitely good to get on a little run with the end of the season coming up,” Bramanti said. “We have a real tough schedule coming up, so it’s really getting us ready for the (postseason) tournament. Every game you have to improve, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”