Andover Boys Basketball suffered two losses against capable teams from Worcester and Tilton, 74-57 and 90-56, respectively.
The losses dropped Andover’s record to 6-7.
Andover had an opportunity against Worcester because Worcester was missing its star player. But, as Greg Devlin ’14 noted, Andover was not as focused or consistent as it needed to be.
“In the end, they were the better team, but I think we let the trash-talking get to us. There were times where we’d play well and claw our way back, and then we’d let up and they’d go on a few runs. That was what took the game away from us,” said Devlin.
Devlin also added that he believed the team put in a lot of effort. In the end, the other team was simply more talented.
“We fought really hard in that game. There were a lot of times when we could have just quit—like when we were down by 15, but we fought back and made it pretty close. We definitely made it interesting. In the end they hit their free throws and made some shots and that’s why their margin of victory was so large,” said Devlin.
The scoring distribution was fairly even against Worcester, with five players scoring within six and eleven points. Andover also shot poorly from the free throw line, making only 6 of 14 free throws. This performance translated to a season-worst 43 percentage from the charity stripe.
The players hoped that the loss against Worcester would help give them motivation to recover going into the game against typically talented Tilton, but the game did not start well for Andover.
Tilton’s best player, junior Terrance Mann, who is ranked as the top junior in New England (according to New England Recruiting Report), quickly scored ten points in the first half. Tilton jumped out to a 39-23 lead by halftime.
“They lost a really good player last year, Wayne Selden, and we thought we had a really good opportunity to beat them. But they came out with confidence and they had a full-court trap. We were kind of rattled, and we just didn’t come out and take the right shots. They had a lot of rebounds and they had a lot of really talented players. It was really difficult to match up with them,” said Germaine Wright ’15.
At halftime, Head Coach Terrell Ivory told the players that he expected more from them.
“[Coach Ivory] knew that we were messing up on the court, and we knew that too. He said that we weren’t playing hard enough and that we didn’t have our heads in the game,” said Nate Meehan ’14.
The players were hoping for a better second half, but the Tilton players were too talented and athletic to handle.
Tilton outscored Andover 51-33 in the second half. This was the most points Andover has given up all year.
Kene Adigwe ’14 led Andover with 13 points, and Brandon Michel finished with eight points.
Andover will look to even its record at 7-7 when the team faces off against Thayer Academy on Friday.
