Blue Devils win in rout
4 Leominster players hit double-digits
LEOMINSTER » The Leominster High boys basketball team keeps on rolling.
Thanks to solid play on both ends of the floor, the Blue Devils dominated visiting Gardner High Thursday night. Paced by a 20point performance from Kevin Viola, the hosts cruised to a 92-28 victory.
With the win, the Blue Devils are now 4- 0 on the season, while the Wildcats fall to 0- 4.
“It was a good effort tonight. We did some things well. We’re still struggling with a few things on the offensive end. We’re not executing like we should,” said Leominster head coach Kevin Grutchfield. “I’m pleased that we were able to score a lot of points off our defense. We had a ton of deflections. We’re still figuring things out, but we’re getting there.”
Four Blue Devils finished in double figures as Justin Dadah added 16 points, Brian Perez chipped in with 15 and Michael Halstead had 10.
Lorenzo Colon and Ryan Gray each scored six points for the Wildcats.
“It’s a huge benefit having played these guys a couple days ago. We squeaked by them up there and we didn’t play well,” said Grutchfield, whose team topped Gardner 61-51 on Monday. “It was great to be able to come back three days later and work on the things that you didn’t do
well the first game. We played much better tonight than we did a few days ago.”
After the game Gardner head coach Pete Gamache didn’t sugarcoat things.
“I think we prepared very well for them over the weekend. We were ready for their pace in Monday night’s game and played well,” said Gamache. “A big lesson learned for us tonight is that you can’t just show up against Division 1 talent and speed. I am guessing our total number of turnovers translated to about 50 points on the scoreboard for them. We just weren’t good on both sides of the ball tonight.”
The Wildcats opened the contest scoring five of the first nine points to take a 5-4 lead after the first three minutes before the Blue Devils found their rhythm.
An 8- 0 Leominster run in a minute and a half gave the hosts a 12-5 lead and the Blue Devils maintained their advantage, taking an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.
In the second, the Wildcats went ice cold from the field and Leominster took advantage. The Blue Devils used their stifling defense to disrupt Gardner and force the Wildcats into multiple turnovers. Leominster opened the frame with a 17- 0 run over the first four minutes to grab a commanding 3512 edge.
Gardner was held to only six points and two field goals in the quarter. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils kept their foot on the gas and went into halftime with a 44-18 lead.
The fortunes of the guests didn’t change during the final 16 minutes. Gardner continued to struggle holding onto the basketball, finishing the contest with 33 turnovers.
Leominster outscored Gardner 27-8 in the third quarter, taking a 71-26 lead to the fourth.
Leominster was red-hot behind the arc all evening, knocking down 12 3-pointers on the night.