MANCHESTER — A big Cape Ann League boys basketball clash brought together teams with the same nickname (Hornets), but different styles of play, as Manchester Essex hosted North Reading, which pulled out a 60-52 win.
After five and a half minutes had passed in the first quarter of play, it looked like it was going to be a stagnant night on offense for both sides, with the score being 5-4 in favor of Manchester Essex. However, that was not the case as North Reading woke up and rode the back of senior point guard Jason Berry (22 points, six 3-pointers).
“He’s a leader,” said North Reading head coach Joe Casey. “He’s a four-year varsity kid. He’s the quarterback of the football team. He was all-league last year. He plays with guts, and he plays hard. The kids look up to him, and he’s the guy who makes this engine run. We’re going to win or lose with him, and he did a great job for us tonight.”
Despite being the shortest player on the court, Berry had far and away the biggest impact as he drilled five threes from deep in the first half, four in the second quarter, and finished as the game’s high scorer.
“I was able to feel out the game pretty well tonight. If I have to get the offense going, I am going to try to get the offense going, whether it be scoring or dishing the ball to great shooters like John Lupien,” said Berry. “Our fourth quarter defense came through. I messed up a few times with some dumb turnovers late in the game, but we locked in and learned our lesson from our overtime loss to Ipswich last game, handling the adversity well.”
North Reading was able to pick apart the Hornets’ defense through some beautiful passing, resulting in easy layups. Casey also had his guys crashing the glass hard and trying to limit Manchester Essex’s second-chance points. North Reading senior big man Conrad Gerber left everything he had on the court, snagging nine boards to go along with his 12 points.
Manchester Essex point guard Graham Lewis is one of the top shooters in the CAL, but he had a tough shooting night.
North Reading did a nice job mitigating the damage from inside the paint, especially against such a skilled and dynamic big man in junior captain Alex Ste. Marie (10 points and five rebounds).
“We really concentrated on shutting down Ste. Marie,” said Casey. “He’s had some big games for them, but we did a good job on him. I thought we did a great job on the boards, limiting them to one shot. Again, they had the size advantage on us, but I thought we did a really good job defensively.”
North Reading was riding high in the first few minutes out of halftime, at one point extending its lead to 17, but the hosts were not going away that easily. Manchester Essex fought hard and whittled the lead all the way down to six with under three minutes remaining, thanks to some contested finishes and a clutch three-pointer from senior captain Jake Zschau (16 points and 4 rebounds).
