ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Paris Wilkey looks to the basket, but Peabody’s Catherine Manning plays tight defense.
By STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — And now … the Classical girls basketball team has to shake their three-overtime loss to Peabody off and head into first-place Revere on Friday night.
That’s the reality that faces the Rams after the Tanners climbed back from an 11-point halftime deficit Tuesday night and defeated Classical, 57-49 in a marathon game at the Rams’ gym.
“We just kept scratching, kept clawing, and kept fighting,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “We didn’t quit.”
Neither did Classical.
“It was a great high school game,” said Rams coach Tom Sawyer. “We played great in the first half; and they played great in the second.”
There were several factors in the turnaround, but at the end of the night, the biggest was free throws. Each team shot 24 of them, but Classical hit nine of them to the Tanners’ 20.
“In this kind of game,” said Sawyer, “you have to hit your free throws.”
With the scored tied at 47 heading into the third overtime, Classical actually grabbed a lead when Soneta Srey hit a layup about 10 seconds in. But those were the last points Classical would score.
Meanwhile, Peabody, taking advantage of four Classical stars who had fouled out, began going to the basket and drawing fouls. In the final 3½ minutes of the overtime, the Tanners hit eight free throws to only one basket — two of Liz Zaiter’s nine points — to give Peabody the winning margin.
“This was Liz’s first game after missing five,” said McKeen. “She stayed in there (after Nene Onwuogu fouled out — Peabody’s only disqualification).”
Classical began as if the game would be over in the first quarter. The Rams jumped out to a 9-0 lead with Irianis Delgado hitting for seven of the points. And when Paris (game-high 18 points) Wilkey hit a three at the buzzer ending the first period, it was 16-7 and Classical looked as if it was on its way.
“But,” said Sawyer, “we didn’t think we were going to score 16 every quarter.”
He was right. Classical only scored eight in the second period, but Peabody could only counter with six, and that made it 24-13 in favor of the Rams.
But the turnaround was still subtle. McKeen went to a 3-2 zone and denied Classical the great looks it got in the first quarter.
The move didn’t pay dividends until the third period, when Peabody outscored Classical 14-7 to go into the next eight minutes down only four, 31-27.
Classical kept a two- to four-point distance between itself and the Tanners until Peabody was finally able to tie it, 37-37, with 1:50 to go in regulation on a 3-pointer by Alyssa Alperen. Delgado gave Classical the lead back with 49 seconds to go, but a layup by Onwuogu with seven seconds left tied it and sent it to overtime.
Through the first two overtimes, neither team led by more than two points. A Katie Wallace bucket with 1:05 to go in the first overtime forced another four minutes. And this time, it was Jeylly Medrano’s two freebies with 2:10 to go that made it 47-47.
Neither team shot well.
“We had some good looks,” said Sawyer. “But they just didn’t go in. For either team.”
Wallace led Peabody with 16 points, followed by Melissa Gray’s 14.
Delgado finished with 11 for the Rams.
Classical had a moment of silence prior to the game in memory of both English boys basketball coach Mike Carr, who died Friday; and Item feature writer Michele Durgin, a Classical graduate, who was killed Saturday in an auto accident.