Knocking down eight 3-pointers en route to a 30 point scoring performance, Co-Captain Dallion Johnson led Andover Boys Basketball to a 98-58 victory over Kents Hill on Wednesday. This win followed a close 76-74 win against Thayer on Friday and a 67-66 loss against St. Sebastian’s on Saturday. Andover’s record now stands at 10-9.
In its games against Thayer and St. Seb’s, Andover outscored its opponents by a narrow margin of 142-141, with both games coming down to the last possession. According to Caleb Blackburn-Johnson ’22, Andover’s recent games have allowed the team to learn to play under pressure in clutch situations.
“We’ve been working a lot recently on taking good shots and smart shots. There were some mixed results in both those games… sometimes we did well, sometimes we didn’t do well taking smart shots. In the St. Sebastian’s game, we were actually down 18 points at one point and went on a 19-0 scoring run to take the lead, but unfortunately they won the game,” said Blackburn-Johnson.
The games also forced Andover to play hard down the stretch, allowing it to work on its conditioning, according to Johnson.
“I think we learned that we need to get more conditioned so that we will be able to handle close games and to also be conditioned enough to not get fatigued in the second half so that we don’t even have close games. We shouldn’t be letting teams hang with us for so long,” said Johnson.
Heading into Wednesday’s game, Andover didn’t know what to expect because Kents Hill was an unfamiliar opponent, according to Blackburn-Johnson.
“They’re a Class C team, we’re a Class A team, so we don’t really know anything about them,” said Blackburn-Johnson.
Against Kents Hill, Andover quickly gained the lead in the first quarter and was able to keep the momentum for the rest of the game. Ten minutes into the second half, Andover was up 67-35 and it continued to run up the score, finishing its second-to-last home game with a 98-58 win, the most points it has scored in a game this season.
According to Johnson, the team was able to showcase its offensive prowess against a weaker opponent.
Johnson said, “We… just focused on moving the ball and running the offense.”
Andover will travel to Williston for its next game on Saturday.
