PHOTO | BOB ROCHE
Despite being under the weather, Louis Ellis, with ball, was there to make the big defensive play to save Lynnfield’s win over Whittier
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield boys basketball team had just enough left in the tank Sunday to punch its ticket to the North Division 3 semifinals, holding on for a heart-pounding 74-72 win over Whittier Tech at Lynnfield High.
The Pioneers survived a furious Whittier fourth quarter rally that erased a 15-point deficit and pull the Wildcats to within a point at 73-72 with 6.6 seconds left. Senior captain Michael Carangelo (21 points, 10 rebounds) was intentionally fouled with with 5.4 seconds to play, but back-rimmed the free throw attempt, right into the hands of junior Zachary Shone (10 points, 4 rebounds), who was fouled. Shone made the first to make it 74-72 with 2.2 seconds left.
Junior Kevin Bradley lobbed the ball in bounds, but it was tipped by a Wildcat, right into the hands of senior captain Louis Ellis (20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals), who made a sure-handed grab as the clock expired.
“Louis had nothing left tonight, he had no legs after missing a week of practice with the flu, but he gutted it out,” Lynnfield coach Scott MacKenzie said. “He was playing free safety for us to defend anything over the top, and he had just enough to go get it.”
Watertown, the top seed, and Lynnfield will tangle Wednesday night at 7 at Wilmington High.
Lynnfield trailed 19-18 after the first quarter, but behind a monster second quarter effort from Carangelo, whose 10 points helped send the Pioneers into halftime with a 38-35 lead.
Ellis heated up in the third, draining two threes to finish with 10 third quarter points. Carangelo chipped in with six points, including a baseline jumper and layup after grabbing a rebound to stake Lynnfield to a 60-49 lead with eight minutes left.
“Mike carried us at times tonight,” MacKenzie said. “They really made Billy Arseneault (17 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals) work, Lou was out of sorts, but Mikey was energized and I thought he did a fantastic job now for a couple of nights in a row, he’s really saved us.”
With 5:36 to go in the game, Shone made one of two free throws, then stole the ball and made a crowd pleasing, spinning 360 through the lane to put the Pioneers on top, 66-51, with about five minutes to play.
Whittier closed with a 21-8 run to make things interesting only to come up short.
The Wildcats were led by Anthony Buckley who scored 18 points and Jameson Santos, who scored 14.
“Our defensive issues showed up today, but we survived, so we are happy to get to play Watertown,” MacKenzie said. “They made some shots at the end and we didn’t make some free throws. It was a combination of things, but fortunately we were able to have two points more.”
MacKenzie said that junior forward Dan Jameson (4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Bryant Dana played well.
“We went real simple against their zone with him in the high post. He (Jameson) always does a really nice job of looking weak side and finding the baseline cut, and you saw tonight that he is a great, great passer, and Bryant played under control tonight as well.”
