EASTHAM — The Warriors came out to play last night, turning the table 180 degrees on last Friday’s stunning loss to Atlantic Coast League foe Sandwich.
With each of Nauset’s 10 players scoring at least one point in the effort, the Warriors last night upended the visiting Upper Cape Tech Rams, 78-50, before a supportive hometown crowd. Nauset now stands at 7-2 on the season while Upper Cape Tech falls to 3-6.
Nauset’s Sam Majewski, shown here battling against Sandwich’s Sam Whittle last Friday night, scored seven points last night to help the Warriors take down the Upper Cape Tech Rams, 78-50.
Sean Walsh/capecod.com sports
Three of Nauset’s basketball players scored in the double digits in this parquet tilt, with Andrew Flynn pouring in 16 points, Ethan Ladue with 13 points and Nick Meehan with 12 points. Ladue took down eight rebounds, but it was Razz Green who brought down the most from the glass with 12 boards. Green added 9 points to his rock-solid effort.
Upper Cape’s Austin Smolinski was the game-high scorer, dumping in 22 hard-earned points. Rams’ teammate Rally Wheaton added 13 points.
Upper Cape Tech jumped out to a quick, 8-2 lead in the first quarter, but once Nauset head coach John McCarthy implemented a 2-2-1 three-quarter-court press, there was no turning back for the host Warrior five.
“They (Rams) started out moving the ball pretty well, but we started getting some shots when we started running some of our different presses and that really hurt them,” McCarthy said.
Nauset came back from the brief, early deficit to establish a 24-14 first quarter lead, but by halftime that lead more than doubled to 46-24. By the end of the third quarter, the Warriors had maintained that broad deficit with a 59-36 lead.
“It was never really in question, but they (Rams) fought so hard all the way through,” McCarthy said. “They completely gave us a tremendous effort. The pressure was really ended up probably getting to them a little bit.”
Nauset jumped out of its press in the second half and went into an extended halfcourt zone defense, but still it proved too much for the visiting Rams.
“They (Rams) played really tough. They have a tough edge to them and they moved the ball really well early on but once we put that full court pressure on them and started hitting some shots it caused a lot of trouble for them,” McCarthy said.
Mike Walsh, Chris Mezulis and Sam Majewski each added seven points in the Warriors’ effort.
Nauset has likely one of its biggest challenges of the season on Friday night when the Warriors welcome the tough-to-beat Marshfield Rams for a 6:30 pm tilt in Eastham.
Upper Cape Tech hopes to get back on the winning track tomorrow night (Wednesday, Jan. 14) when it welcomes the Cape Cod Tech Crusaders for a 6:30 pm match-up.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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