Sports

Dunks Overpower Andover; McCaskill ’10 Scores Season High

As Tilton sunk its seventh dunk of the game on Wednesday, the game slipped out of Andover’s reach. Despite a season-high 28 point performance from Co-Captain Khalid McCaskill, Andover lost a brutal game against Tilton to cap off a 0-2 week. “Tilton is one of the best teams in New England, if not the best. We played harder, we had more energy, and we put more points on the board than we have been too,” said Coach Modeste. Tilton was an extremely athletic team, dunking seven times including an impressive alley-oop early in the second half. Andover’s only lead of the game came before the clock even started. The team capitalized on two free throw opportunities, awarded to Andover for technical fouls against Tilton for dunking in warm-ups. Turnovers were a major issue for Andover in the first half, as the team turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. McCaskill ran the show for Andover, putting up a season high 28 points.. Most of his points came on three-pointers, as he was on fire from behind the arc. Palleschi and Bond each contributed eight points. “We worked on our offense a lot on Monday and Tuesday in practice, and I think it showed this game as we were able to run it a lot better,” Modeste said. On Saturday, Andover started its week with a loss to Rivers, 37-47. Ryan Hartung’12 said, “Bad is an understatement.” Only putting up 37 points, Andover continued its struggles on the offensive end. “It’s not that we were taking bad shots,” said Coach Modeste. “They just weren’t falling. There were a lot of shots that clanked off the back rim, threes were right there but went in and out.” Andover especially struggled in the first half, only scoring 14 points. The team entered halftime down 14-21. Despite better offensive execution in the second half, Andover could not close the gap. Co-Captain Tyler Bond ’10 said, “The issue was purely our shooting, both free throws and from the field. We played good defense, rebounded, and broke the press well, but we just couldn’t connect on offense.” Tom Palleschi was the only scorer in double digits for Andover with 12, followed by McCaskill with eight, and Bond with six. “I think we just need to have more confidence in our shots. We are a pretty good shooting team and we get good looks, we just have to capitalize,” Bond said. The team will look to regain its footing when Andover faces Thayer this Friday.