Eric Alperin ’15 received a quick pass, stepped behind the three-point arc and sank his fourth three-pointer of the game. Alperin’s 14 first-half points contributed to Andover Boys Basketball’s 55-34 victory over Thayer on Friday. The win against Thayer halted a three-game skid during which Andover lost against Cushing, the previous league champion, Worcester Academy and Tilton, three of the top teams in the Class AA NEPSAC League division. While these losses dropped Andover’s record to 6-8 before the Thayer game, the players took valuable lessons away from those losses, which allowed them to secure two wins last weekend. With strong momentum from Friday’s game, the team toppled St. Sebastian’s 58-44 on Saturday. “We learned that we can’t be outworked, especially by teams that are more talented than us… if they’re more talented than us and on top of that, they outwork and out-hustle us, they’re always going to win,” said Alperin. “It was good to play those top teams because our league is less challenging. We got a lot better and we learned a lot about ourselves. We learned that we could beat all the teams we play from now on.” Andover’s defense only allowed only 34 Thayer points, a remarkable drop from the 90 points that Andover allowed against Thayer last year. “We switched back and forth from man to man to 1-3-1 zone throughout the game and they had trouble adjusting. In both games we switched all screens, and our opponents had no idea what to do,” said Jake Howell ’14. Head Coach Terrell Ivory added, “We really feel that if we get stops, the offense will take care of itself. But in order for the offense to play well, we absolutely need to play great team defense.” Alperin’s 21 total points fueled Andover’s blowout victory over Thayer. While his performance was impressive on its own, his game held a little more significance for him. “I knew I had to play well because my trainer came out here [from Los Angeles], but otherwise I knew he was going to get on my back. When I was warming up, I felt really good, and I just decided to let everything go and see how it went. After the first two shots went in, I kind of got in a zone,” said Alperin. Alperin did not cool off the next day against St. Sebastian’s and continued his torrid scoring pace, providing 16 of Andover’s 58 points on Saturday. His first-half outbreak of 11 points gave Andover a large cushion throughout the game—St. Sebastian’s brought the game to within six points late in the second half, but the padded lead that Alperin had helped to build secure Andover’s victory. Brandon Michel ’14 also had a strong performance with 19 points, 14 of which came in the second-half. Andover’s game against Tabor on Wednesday was canceled due to inclement weather. With a week to prepare for its next game, the players will try to use their momentum from these two victories to give the team an edge against Brooks next Thursday.
