PEABODY — It could have been clairvoyance or just a little bit of luck, but during one timeout late Thursday night Peabody coach Thad Broughton foretold the future.
“In one of those huddles, I kind of looked at Johnny Lucas and told him he was going to step up and make a play,” Broughton said.
Beverly took the ball up the floor trailing by two with 90 seconds left when Lucas came up with a steal and went the distance for a key lay-up. That dogged defense was a perfect example of the kind of play Lucas provided as Peabody High stormed back for a 50-45 win over the rival Panthers at home.
“Anytime you can beat Beverly its huge because they’ve dominated this conference for years,” said Broughton, whose team is now 12-2 and sits atop the NEC at 8-1 in league play. “Our seniors stepped up in the second half and made some humongous plays.”
Peabody trailed by nine at the break after the Panthers (6-7) dominated the paint in the opening stanza. Beverly was 7-for-9 in the paint in the first quarter and 13-for-16 in the first half to build the lead; senior captain James Stevenson was especially dominant with all of his 12 points coming inside.
After the break, though, the Tanners tightened up their defense and held Beverly to just one field goal in the third quarter.
“Our defense was loose,” admitted Broughton. “We were letting them get by us and at same time, we were ice cold from the floor.”
Things began to heat up midway through the third. Senior Anthony Forte (12 points) made a couple of clutch three’s to cut into the lead. A put-back by senior forward Cam Connolly gave Peabody its first lead since the opening quarter and after Beverly answered, Forte converted a conventional 3-point play to put his team ahead for good.
By the time the third quarter ended, it was an 18-6 run for Peabody.
“We changed what we were doing (offensively),” said Beverly coach Matt Karakoudas. “Our ball movement stopped. Instead of working harder to get the ball inside, we settled for perimeter shots.”
Still, Beverly rallied to get within two points in the final two minutes. Aidan Sullivan had a clutch late 3-pointer (his team’s only one of the night). Jacob Klass (13 points) converted an and-1 with 5:38 to go to make it a one possession contest, but the Tanners played lock-down defense the rest of the way.
“Klass is a phenomenal player and Anthony (Forte) played some tremendous defense on some of those possessions at the end,” said Broughton. “He made some humongous stops.”
Senior Raphel Laurent had a game-high 17 for Peabody and had a huge hand in closing out the win with several big buckets in the late few minutes. Beverly had 11 turnovers and had three costly ones on the final four possessions.
“It’s an inexperienced group. I haven’t figured out how to get us to finish the full four quarters,” Karakoudas noted. “We can call things and in a tight game, sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. That’s something that comes with experience and Peabody’s a senior-heavy team.”
Connolly and Lucas were immense in attacking the boards for Peabody and combined for 13 rebounds. Jariel Tolentino also had some key assists on in-bounds plays inside for Lucas, who finished with eight points. Connolly had nine.
“It was a slow, half-court, grind it out kind of game,” Broughton said.
For the Panthers, Ben Zanibino and Danny Pierce led the way on the glass. Beverly held Peabody to 1-of-11 on 3-pointers in the first half and the Tanners missed 17 from distance in the game.
“I’m very happy with our defense,” said Karakoudas. “Twenty in one half and 30 in another? I’ll take that any night. If we can’t score 51, we don’t deserve to win.”
Peabody 50, Beverly 45
at Peabody High
Beverly 16 13 6 10 45
Peabody 10 10 18 12 50
Individual scoring
Beverly: Klass 5-3-13, Ryan 2-0-4, Diaz 1-2-4, Zainboni 2-0-4, Pierce 1-1-3, Sullivan 1-0-3, Stevenson 5-2-12, Silva 1-0-2, D’Etremont 0-0-0. Totals 18-8-45.
Peabody: Laurent 7-3-17, Forte 4-1-12, Tolentino 1-0-2, Connolly 3-3-9, Lucas 4-0-8, Medrano 1-0-2, Festa 0-0-0. Totals 20-7-50.
3-pointers: B, Sullivan; P, Forte 3.
Halftime score: B, 29-20.
Records: B, 6-7; P, 12-2.