BYFIELD — Thursday night, Newburyport's Beth Castantini was on the 1,000-point watch, just 30 points shy of the milestone, of which she was able to get only 20 points closer. Last night Pentucket's Corey McNamara took his turn in the bright lights, needing 25 points to break 1,000 against Triton on the Vikings' senior night.
Like Castantini, McNamara fell short and was forced to wait for another day, mostly because Triton would not cooperate and hounded him every step he took on the court. Ultimately he scored 16 points to get within single digits of the plateau, which he will most likely eclipse tonight at Stoneham at 5 p.m.
More importantly though, despite a scrappy effort from the Vikings (4-14), the Sachems (12-5) were able to come out on top, 63-49.
Playing a triangle-and-two defense on the Sachems two best offensive players, McNamara and Will Angelini (8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal), Triton was able to limit Pentucket's effectiveness for much of the game. In fact over the past three games the inside-outside combo of McNamara and Angelini had been averaging 50 points per game, but Triton's depth off the bench allowed the Vikings to send wave after wave of suffocating defense and hold the pair to less than half that average, a combined 24.
"We were really determined to shut down Corey McNamara and Will Angelini," Triton coach Dave Clay said of his team's game plan. "Those two are both unbelievable players, both a lot of offseason commitment and I've been fortunate to see both of them grow. Leo's done a great job with them."
Instead the Sachems looked to senior Bruce Reid, who came back from the flu and looked more like McNamara than McNamara. Left open quite often because the Vikings were diverting so much attention elsewhere, Reid buried five 3-pointers on the night, all of which came at big moments of the game — two early in the first quarter to get Pentucket going, one late in the third quarter when Pentucket was struggling offensively and two more in the fourth quarter to give the Sachems a much needed cushion.
"I think Bruce Reid had a good night for us and hit some big shots," Pentucket coach Leo Parent said. "They were playing a triangle-and-two on Will and Corey, and trying to take them out of their rhythm. I thought Bruce got us going with some big shots in the first quarter and hit some big shots in the fourth quarter, so he spread out his jump shots and it seemed like everyone made a difference for us. We needed someone to step up. They were trying to take away our two main people, and I thought Bruce really hit some big shots, which was nice to see because he's been working on his shooting and it really paid off. We needed those points."
Playing like a bulldog in his final game on senior night, Triton's Jedd Hutchins nearly inspired the Vikings to reel in one huge final upset. For the game Hutchins nailed two big threes and made a spectacular and-one layup converting the free throw to finish with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block.
"Jedd was great, he's been great all year," Clay said. "He really leaves it all out there for us. Just a great guy that you can tell is leaving it out there every time he plays.
"We played hard, they've played hard all season," said Clay, while saying he was really going to miss his 10 seniors next year, guys he said all treated the game with respect and were outstanding individuals. "We're just not getting the results we want, but they've left it all on the floor, which is all I asked for all year."
Other players that played well on the night included Pentucket's Tim Freirmuth (8 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists) and Nolan Dragon (9 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) and Triton's Blaise Whitman with eight points.
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