The Marblehead High School Magicians boys basketball team fell to the Masconomet Chieftains in a physical overtime contest, 58-55, at the Kulevich Field House on Monday.
“Obviously we’re happy with the way these kids played, the effort, the intensity,” said Marblehead coach Mike Girardi. “Coming up short hurts just a little bit, you know. We did a lot of good things. A couple balls didn’t bounce our way, a couple of free throws hurt us, but we stayed in it right to the end and had a shot to tie it at the end.”
Masconomet came out of the gates red hot, opening up a 12-3 lead early in the game. The Magicians closed the gap late, converting a 3-point play and nailing a pair of 3s to make it a 17-12 first quarter scoreline, with Marblehead’s Finn Baron scoring 10 points in the opening 8 minutes.
Cam Weaver and Blake Golden led the charge for Marblehead with four points each as the hosts continued to decrease the deficit in the second quarter. Tommy McGovern tied the game at 25-apiece with just over a minute to play in the half, but a late Masconomet free throw would send the game to halftime with the Chieftains leading 26-25.
The Magicians were quickly put into foul trouble, with Masco entering the bonus with 3:23 to play in the third quarter. The Chieftains would capitalize on Marblehead’s mistakes, shooting 7-of-8 from the line in the third. Rylan Golden, returning to the court following his injury during the football season, posted all nine of Marblehead’s third quarter points.
Down four entering the final period of regulation, Marblehead slowly but surely closed the gap on their Northeastern Conference rivals. Weaver took over the game in clutch time, drawing a series of fouls and converting on a pair of and-1 opportunities late in the game.
Riding an 11-4 run into the final moments, the Magicians took the lead for the first time in the game by way of a tough bucket from senior guard, Finn Gallup, with 28.2 seconds remaining.
A late foul would send Masconomet’s Thomas Denton to the line. Denton converted the tying free-throw but failed to sink the go-ahead bucket, forcing the game to extra sessions with the score split 50-50.
The overtime period rapidly devolved into a free-throw shooting contest. A total of six players fouled out of the game, four from Masconomet and two from Marblehead. While the Magicians would win the battle from the charity stripe, going 5-of-8 in OT compared to Masco’s 4-of-8, two key Chieftain buckets would force Marblehead to throw up a hail mary three-pointer as time expired that fell short of the iron, handing the Magicians their second loss of the year, 58-55.
Marblehead will make their way to Peabody for a conference matchup against the Tanners on Thursday at 7 p.m.
