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Despite missing two starters, Witches knock off Beverly in Tobin's return

Friday, January, 04 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

BEVERLY | There wasn't much the Salem boys basketball team could feel good about coming into the Henry Cabot Lodge Fieldhouse last night.

Losers of three of their first four games, the visiting Witches also had to deal with the proposition of battling a Beverly team amped up on the return of senior forward Matt Tobin without two of their own starters.

A lopsided first quarter added to Salem's frustration, but a long second quarter run got the Witches back in the game and gave them a renewed sense of energy as they ran away from Beverly, 67-60.

Junior forward Chris Dunston and Salem's Mr. Versatility, Beau Theriault, were each out with injuries for the Witches, but it hardly seemed to matter as guards Chris Maxson (game-high 20 points), Junior Lugo (18), and Bryan Ortiz (11) carried the offense while reserve forwards Sean Linehan and Danny Byars did the dirty work on the glass and on the defensive end.

Salem's starting center, Drew Homan, got into early foul trouble, pressing both Linehan and Byars into early action against Tobin, Beverly's all-star post player who returned to the lineup after sitting out four games for academic reasons.

Tobin's return to the court seemed to give the Panthers wings in the opening quarter, as they jumped out to a 22-12 lead.

Salem responded with a 12-0 run midway through the second quarter to trim Beverly's lead to one, 29-28, and a Lugo three with less than a minute to play in the first half knotted the score, 31-31.

"We woke up," Maxson said of the spurt. "We didn't play together in the first quarter. The team wanted more teamwork and better passes and shot attempts. It was all about momentum. We wanted to build off our win over Revere (in our last game), but we were missing a couple guys so other people had to step up."

This was Beverly's first chance to play with a full lineup and Tobin clearly improved his team's post play. The senior forward finished with 17 points, but having him back on the court wasn't a seamless transition.

"The kids were sky-high because it was the first time we've had our whole team," Beverly coach Scott Lewis said. "But there's also some cohesion problems too. He hasn't played in four games and the other guys have played hard (in his absence), so everybody has to re-establish their roles again.

"I was afraid that might happen. I was hoping we could just ride the momentum of just having (Tobin). As the game went along I think we looked to him too much and we stopped spreading the ball."

The Witches were aware that Tobin would likely make his debut against them last night and they had a game plan in place for one of the Northeastern Conference's most talented players.

"We had heard during the week that he was playing," Salem coach Tom Doyle said. "We were prepared either way. We were down two starters and other guys stepped up huge. Danny Byars, Sean Linehan, and Drew Homan rotated on Tobin. He ended up with 17, but they were hard-earned points."

Salem built a 10-point lead halfway through the third quarter because Beverly couldn't convert from the free throw line.

The Panthers didn't convert a field goal in the second half until there was 3:18 left in the third quarter. During that time they went 1 for 8 from the free throw line. For the quarter, they shot 1 for 9 from the line and only 14 of 30 for the game.

"You're not going to win any games like that. Not against good teams like Salem," Lewis said. "We shoot free throws every day before we get on the court and it just doesn't seem to translate into the game. It's not the first time we've shot poorly at the line. It's the third time in four games, so we'll have to spend more time on it apparently."

Linehan finished with six points and 12 rebounds for Salem (2-3), while Byars had nine points and nine boards.

Beverly (2-3) had good output from Nate Knudson (13 points), Brian Skerry (12), and Matt McQuaid (10), but Salem played like a team that needed a win.

"We needed it bad," Doyle said. "We got off to a tough start. We played some tough teams, but we need to go on a nice little run now and get back to where we want to be. This was a good start in an away gym against a very good team."