HAMILTON — The Lynnfield boys basketball team just couldn’t keep up with Cape Ann League foe Hamilton-Wenham Friday night, as the Pioneers fell 71-46 in their season finale on the road. With the win, Hamilton-Wenham captured the CAL Baker Division title for this year.
“We just ran into a better team out there (Friday),” said Lynnfield coach John Bakopolus. “Hamilton-Wenham is a very talented team and they played some really good basketball out there. They outrebounded us, they outshot us and they won more 50-50 balls than us. It just wasn’t our night.”
Senior Luke Martinho led the way for Lynnfield with 10 points.
It was a close game in the early minutes, with Lynnfield battling back from an 11-5 deficit to only trail 16-13 after the first quarter.
But from there, Hamilton-Wenham took over.
The Generals opened the second quarter with a 13-0 run to blow the game open, and they never looked back from there. After getting outscored by 17 points in the quarter, Lynnfield went into halftime down 41-21.
Hamilton-Wenham eventually stretched its lead out to 25 points in the third quarter and held that lead the rest of the way.
Now that his first regular season — albeit a strange, shortened season — is in the books, Bakopolus couldn’t be happier with the way things shook out this season given the circumstances.
“I have nothing but positive things to say about how this year has gone,” said Bakopolus. “Our guys have come out every day and brought their best effort and they play hard every night. I’m very lucky to get to coach a group of guys like this and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Lynnfield wraps up the season at 4-6 and now awaits its matchup with rival North Reading in the upcoming CAL tournament on Tuesday (TBD).
“We’re excited to get a chance to keep playing and go up against our rival in a tournament game,” Bakopolus said. “The guys have earned their place in this tournament with their play this year and we’re going to go out there and give it our best effort on Tuesday.”