SAUGUS — The Saugus boys basketball team rallied back from a double-digit deficit two different times, forced overtime and had a chance to win it late, but in the end the Sachems just ran out of magic in the final minutes and fell to Greater Lawrence by a score of 61-57 at home Tuesday night.
Tyrone Manderson led the scoring attack for the Sachems with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Ben Tapia-Gately added 12 points and seven rebounds. Ryan Mabee (eight points, two rebounds), Mark MacEachern (seven points, five rebounds) and Jeury Barbosa (five points, four rebounds) all played well in the loss.
Things didn’t get off to the best start for the Sachems, which came out of the gate slowly and fell behind early on. Greater Lawrence knocked down a number of long-range shots in the opening minutes to extend its lead, and by the time the first quarter was over Saugus was trailing 21-10.
While the deficit never got any larger than that, the Sachems found themselves swimming against the current in the second quarter as well. Despite turning things around offensively and actually outscoring the Reggies in the second, Saugus still trailed by 10 points (34-24) at the halftime break.
The Sachems cut that deficit to five points by the end of the third quarter, and in the fourth they really made a run. Behind some big 3-pointers from both Tapia-Gately and Mabee, Saugus rallied all the way back to within three points with less than a minute to go in regulation.
Then, in the final seconds, the Sachems grabbed a steal and moved the ball up the court. The ball found Mabee behind the arc, and the junior drained the deep three to tie the game with 0.2 seconds left and send it to overtime.
Unfortunately for the Sachems, that’s where the magic ran out. Saugus made too many turnovers in the overtime period, allowing Greater Lawrence to get some transition baskets and run away with the win.
Saugus (3-2) hosts Essex Tech Thursday (7).