Andover Boys Basketball’s Andrew Reavis ’17 charged up the court and pushed through the big bodies of the Williston Northampton team, drawing contact and rising up for an and-one layup at the beginning of the second half at home on Friday.
The kind of physicality that Reavis displayed embodied Andover’s play in the second half. He was the spark plug of Andover’s 14-2 run to start the game’s second portion, in which Andover only allowed one Williston shot to fall. Despite Reavis’s best efforts, the 20-point hole Andover had dug itself into in the first half was too much to overcome, falling 74-53.
Head Coach Terrell Ivory said, “In the second half we competed, we didn’t turn the ball over, we were strong with the ball and made good passes and started to knock down our shots. We were playing against a team that is a little bit more athletically talented than us. We have to do the little things that will allow us to be successful and give us a competitive edge.”
Andover suffered a rough start to the contest, with a perennially talented Williston team coming out strong, playing tough press defense and seemingly connecting on every shot attempt.
Andover struggled on the offensive end as well, forcing up contested jump shots and quickly falling into a double digit deficit.
At halftime, Andover trailed Williston 38-19. Determined to make a statement, Reavis came out fighting at halftime, blowing by the opposing defenders in transition.
Reavis said, “In the first half we did a poor job of getting out in transition and getting easy buckets, second half I feel like we attacked the rim more, which got us to the line and enabled us to get back in the game, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to complete the comeback.”
Scoring seven straight points for his team, he shot 5-5 from the free throw line during that stretch, allowing Andover to pull within single digits.
Defensive play also improved. Robby Cerulle ’17 said, “We played really well on the defensive end, making sure to get to the paint before we picked up a man and that was a big part of our success.”
Reavis’s play inspired the rest of the team. Following suit, Eric Alperin ’15 and Sam Glazer ’15 began driving towards the basket, with most attempts resulting in drawing a foul or a dump off for an easy layup by Nick Forti ’15 and Kurtis Weber ’15.
Alperin said, “The second half we played well, we didn’t turn the ball over and everyone started making plays in the transition game. [Reavis] started getting to the basket which in turn helped [Glazer] and me get to the basket as well and we were able to make a bit of a run.”
It was Weber’s first game back in over a week, and the fresh blood really invigorated Andover’s paint presence. Despite Weber’s return, however, Andover was still outmatched by Williston’s big men.
Once again missing Jake Nelson ’15, the team struggled to grab rebounds from Williston, who had multiple second chance opportunities on the offensive end because of its strong efforts on the offensive boards.
Forti said, “Obviously it was great to get [Weber] back, for a stretch of games we really had no size which killed us on both ends. Even now, we’re not at full strength missing [Nelson], and being at a small team to begin with there is already a disadvantage.”
Andover hopes to avenge this loss in its contest against Brooks on Thursday.
