GEORGETOWN — It had been a while since Newburyport played a game this close.
Since the calendar turned over to 2024, the Clippers have only played in two games that were decided by less than 20 points. And if you want to talk about important fourth-quarter possession in a single-digit battle, you’d need to go back to the team’s Christmas Tournament finale against Beverly in December.
That’s just the reality the Clippers face in the CAL this year.
But come state tournament time, it’s not going to be that easy.
Luckily for Newburyport, one of the two remaining true CAL tests on its schedule proved to be just that on Tuesday night. A talented Georgetown team gave the Clippers all they could handle, and had it as close as a 9-point game midway through the fourth quarter. But junior Finn Brennan came up with a clutch and-1 late that acted as the dagger, and Newburyport survived its first taste of adversity in a month to down the Royals, 57-44.
“A win is a win,” said Newburyport coach Mark Elmendorf. “I wasn’t thrilled with the turnovers, but what I was really pleased with was that, both in the first half and the second, (Georgetown) made a nice run, and we answered it. So I was proud of that. This was our closest game in a while, and (Georgetown) is good. But I was really proud with the way we answered their runs.”
Heading into Tuesday night, Newburyport (10-2) was beating CAL opponents by an average of 31.3 points.
It’s “closest” game was an 18-point win over North Reading.
But Georgetown (8-4) was more than up to the task of giving the Clippers a fight. The Royals trailed 29-16 after a sloppy first half of turnovers, but leaned on the sharpshooting of Jack Duggan to get back into the game. The junior had missed eight straight games before returning against Ipswich last week, and finished with a team-high 15 points on five 3s — all in the second half — to get his squad as close as six (35-29) in the third quarter.
“He kept us in it. Without him, I don’t know how we would have made out,” said Georgetown coach Josh Keilty on Duggan. “But (Newburyport) is very well-coached and they’re disciplined. Mark does a great job over there with them. This was a great opportunity for us, and I thought our boys competed and battled hard. But it just wasn’t our cleanest game offensively.”
With that last point, Keilty was mainly referring to the first half.
Which, credit also goes to Newburyport’s defense.
A pair of Cal Atherton buckets and a Connor Spinney 3 got the Clippers out to a 7-0 lead, and they would never trail the entire game. The Royals struggled with turnovers, but made a run late in the first with a Jomar Terrero 3 followed by a Jackson Lasquade bucket to get as close as they would get at 11-9. But a Brennan (14 pts) and-1 and Atherton (10 pts) layup gave the Clippers some cushion, and athletic point guard Sam Craig did a fantastic job all night — and really all season — running the team’s offense.
“Just playing through the energy of it all,” said Craig. “They have a hostile crowd here that came to our game last year, they were really loud and always yelling and chirping. So we had to zone out and play to the best of our ability.”
The Royals, however, executed much better in the second half.
Scrappy point guard Brendan Loewen often assisted Duggan on his 3s, and the likes of Marcos Yones, Lasquade and Jalen Andujar battled hard in the paint despite giving up height to Newburyport’s bigs. When Duggan canned his third straight 3 in the third to cut it to a 35-29 game, the Clippers quickly called a timeout.
But whenever the Royals made it interesting, the Clippers always responded.
Spinney (15 pts) hit a 3 followed by a steal and a transition layup, and a Brennan bucket had the lead to 42-35 heading into the fourth. Very much a close game, but that’s when All-Star junior Carson Gretz established himself for Newburyport with a pair of free throws and a bucket to push it back to double figures. A Lasquade floater cut it to 9 and 46-37 midway through the quarter, but Gretz came up with a big offensive rebound and putback after a missed free throw.
Brennan’s and-1 with 2:30 left to make it 53-41 was the exclamation point.
“We get to this point, at 10-2, you know, we could have something really special going on,” said Elmendorf. “And I want to just keep it going, but that’s hard. Everybody brings their A-Game against us, and that’s important for the kids to understand. Every game against us is their Super Bowl.”
Newburyport 57, Georgetown 44
Newburyport (57): Sam Craig 1-0-2, Cal Atherton 5-0-10, Peter Osazuwa 0-0-0, Zayd Leanna 1-2-4, Thomas Thoreson 0-0-0, Connor Spinney 5-2-15, Finn Brennan 6-2-14, Carson Gretz 4-4-12. Totals 22-10-57
Georgetown (44): Jackson Lasquade 5-1-11, Brendan Loewen 1-1-3, Marcos Yones 2-0-4, Jalen Andujar 2-0-5, Brady Kent 0-0-0, Jomar Terrero 2-1-6, Noah Rosario 0-0-0, Jack Duggan 5-0-15, Irvin Zapata 0-0-0. Totals 17-3-44
3-pointers: N — Spinney 3; G — Duggan 5, Andujar, Terrero
Newburyport (10-2): 13 16 13 15 — 57
Georgetown (8-4): 11 5 19 9 — 44