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WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 JANUARY 30, 2020
FILE PHOTO
Lynnfield’s Grace Klonsky (left) scored 12 points in a win over Masconomet last Friday.
Pioneers beat Masco
for first time in 17 years
By Anne Marie Tobin
Nobody saw this one coming.
Nobody.
The Lynnfield girls basketball
team has been inconsistent
all season long. Going into
last Friday’s road game against
mighty Masconomet, which had
lost just one game all year and
stood undefeated in the Cape
Ann League, there weren’t a
lot of people betting on a 4-6
Pioneer team to win.
Lynnfield had not beaten the
Chieftains since 2003, when all
but three of the players on this
year’s team hadn’t even been
born yet.
The first meeting of the
season between the two teams
played out as most games usually
go against the Chieftains,
which hardly broke a sweat in
a 53-30 victory. Masco’s allworld
guard and 1,000 point
scorer Mac Graves torched the
Pioneers for 31 points that night
Fast forward to Friday and
that 17-year drought finally was
put in the history books with a
37-35 win in a thriller, thanks to
a coast-to-coast drive and buzzer-beating
layup by junior point
guard Grace Klonsky.
Lynnfield held a three-point
lead, 35-32, with under a minute
to play after Riley Hallahan
drained a three-pointer. Masco
came back with a three of its
own to tie the game with about
12 seconds to play in regulation.
Coach Peter Bocchino called
a timeout to draw up a play.
“There were seven seconds
left and I told everyone that
there was only one player on
the court who could go the
length of the court, and that was
Grace,” said Bocchino. “So I
spread everyone out wide and
told her to go to the hoop. She
literally went the length of the
court in five seconds. It was just
a great finish to a great game.”
Klonsky, who hit a three from
mid-court to close out the third
quarter and send the Pioneers
into the final eight minutes with
a 28-26 lead, said she didn’t
agree with Bocchino’s decision.
“I thought we should have
done something else, but I guess
he knew what he was doing,”
said Klonsky. “It was just pure
focus and instinct. The whole
bench was screaming and the
parents were jumping onto the
court.”
One person who kept his cool
was Bocchino.
“I had to act like I had been
there before,” he said. “I can’t
say enough about Grace. She
finally has her confidence level
up and to do what she did against
Masco, and not just that last
shot, but the way she managed
the game was phenomenal.”
Klonsky said it was a total
team effort, especially the defense,
which held Graves to just
three points and Masco to its
lowest point total of the season.
“We knew that Graves likes
to go to her left, so we worked
on different rotations to force
her to her right,” said Klonsky.
“And Cate (MacDonald), Tori
(Morelli) and Riley were just
incredible rebounding.”
MacDonald (6 points) and
Morelli (12 points) finished
with 11 boards each, while
Hallahan (3 points) finished
with eight.
Klonsky (12 points) said she
thinks the game will be a turning
point the rest of the season.
“For me, the game was a big
one because we actually played
as a team for the first time all
year,” said Klonsky, a two-year
captain. “We’ve had our share
of arguments this season, but
we finally put all that aside and
played together.
“We needed that one win and
the others will start coming. We
had to play some tough teams
at the beginning of the season.
This game will go a long way to
saving our season.”
Klonsky deflected attention
away from her buzzer-beater
heroics.
“The three that Riley hit was
the shot of the game, no doubt
about it,” Klonsky said. “That
shot gave us all the confidence
we needed especially after
Masco hit their three. Her shot
really took the crowd out of it,
and they were really smacktalking
us the whole game.”
Chuck a Duck fundraiser
The Pioneers are back in action
Friday night when they take
on archrival North Reading at
home (6:30). The game features
a “Chuck a Duck” fundraiser at
halftime to help raise money for
the the end-of-year banquet and
other team expenses.
Members of the Lynnfield
youth basketball league have
been invited to attend. All youth
players wearing their youth basketball
jerseys will get in free.
FILE PHOTO
Clayton Marengi had 22 points and six rebounds in a win over
Masconomet last Friday.
Lynnfield boys
win fourth
straight game
By Mike Alongi
LYNNFIELD — Four games
ago, the Lynnfield boys basketball
team was 2-6 and struggling.
Fast forward to Friday
night, and the Pioneers have
crept back into the state tournament
mix after notching a 65-57
win over Cape Ann League foe
Masconomet for their fourth
straight victory.
“At this point in the season,
you are what you are,”
said Lynnfield coach Scott
MacKenzie. “For the past
couple of weeks, the goal has
been to get back to .500 so we
can reset things and try to make
a run. I’m proud of the guys for
getting to this point.”
It was a full team effort offensively
for Lynnfield, but
Clayton Marengi led the way
with 22 points and six rebounds.
Jack Ford added 15 points and
three rebounds, while Max
Boustris put up a double-double
with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Khad Connell had six points
and 12 rebounds, while Blake
Peters had six points and six
rebounds.
It was all Lynnfield from
the beginning, as the Pioneers
jumped out to an early 9-point
lead before Masconomet had to
call a timeout. The Chieftains
went on a small run to close the
quarter, but Lynnfield still led
18-11 after one.
In the second quarter, Ford,
Marengi and Boustris helped
extend Lynnfield’s lead to as
many as 14 points. Marengi
scored 12 points in the first half
— including three 3-pointers —
while Boustris notched seven
points and eight rebounds. Ford
scored nine points and ran the
offense from the point guard
position. At the end of the first
half, the Pioneers led 34-22.
“The last few games, we’ve
shot the ball really well from
outside,” said MacKenzie.
“We came out early (Friday)
and hit four threes in the first
quarter, which really made
(Masconomet) have to adjust
their defense.”
But the second half was a different
story. Slowly but surely,
Masconomet started to climb
back into the game. A turnover
here and a big 3-pointer there
led to the Chieftains cutting the
deficit to just six points (45-39
Lynnfield) by the end of the
third quarter.
The rally continued into
the fourth quarter. Although
Masconomet never fully came
back to tie or take the lead, the
Chieftains fought all the way
back to make it a 55-54 game
with 2:30 left to play. But just
when they needed it most, the
Pioneers got a big 3-pointer
from Boustris and a pair of
stellar plays from Ford to go on
a quick 7-0 run and stretch the
lead back out to eight points.
After a pair of free throws from
Peters in the final seconds,
Lynnfield walked away with
the win.
“Once Masconomet made
that shift to man defense, I think
it took us out of our game and
we were trying too hard to hit
shots against the man coverage
instead of taking what we were
given,” MacKenzie said. “But
I have to give our guys some
credit, because we could’ve
folded at any point during that
run but we didn’t and we came
out with the win.”
Next up for Lynnfield (6-6) is
a home game against Melrose
Sunday afternoon (3).
“The key is to keep up the
positivity and keep pushing forward,”
MacKenzie said. “These
guys know what they need to
do to keep this level of play up.
We just want to accentuate the
things we do well and limit our
mistakes going forward.”