Lions roar past Cavaliers
Jermaine Perez and Tommy Beauchemin help Lincoln move over .500 mark in Division II
LINCOLN — The difference between the Lincoln boys basketball team’s performance in the first half of Monday night’s Division II game against Juanita Sanchez and the second half is pretty easy to figure out.
Talented junior forward Jermaine Perez played just six foul-plagued minutes in the opening half and scored just two points as the Lions and Cavaliers went into the break tied.
Perez stayed out foul trouble in the second half and that proved to be trouble for the visitors. Perez scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, including going 3-for-4 from the foul line down the stretch, to help the Lions pull away from Juanita Sanchez 62-53.
“I thought our defense was better in the second half and communicated a little bit better,” Lincoln coach Kent Crooks said. “I had to sit Jermaine down in the first half with two fouls and when he’s off the floor it hurts you. His play in the second half was really big for us.”
“I tried to help my team, but it was a pretty rough first half for me and nothing was really falling,” Perez said. “I just kept taking it to the basket and everything started falling. I hit my first shot and that really forced them to guard me and I thought I had the speed to get by my man and get to the basket.”
Lincoln (3-2 Division II) was coming off a frustrating road defeat to Tiverton three night ago and Crooks pointed out prior to the game that the Cavaliers had beaten Mt. Hope, which beat Tiverton earlier in the season. Junior guard Tommy Beauchemin did most of the heavy lifting with Perez on the bench.
Beauchemin scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the opening half to keep the Lions in the game when their defense wasn’t playing particularly well. Crooks also praised the play of guard Connor Sheehan, who scored all six of his points in the second half.
“This was a real, good league win,” Crooks said. “I put dominoes on the board prior to the game and it’s one domino at a time. You have to keep plugging along one game at a time and you have to keep knocking people off.”
Juanita Sanchez (2-3 Division II) beat the aforementioned Huskies Friday night and is still looking for consistency early in the season. The Cavaliers were led by Leo Perez, who scored 12 of his 15 points in the opening half.
The Cavaliers only trailed by one win 7:37 to go when Luis Florentino knocked down a 30-foot 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring. The Cavaliers had the ball with the chance to take the lead, but Perez led the Lions on a 14-2 run over the next three minutes to open up a game-high 13point advantage.
The biggest play during the run came when Sheehan scored after a steal and was fouled. Sheehan missed the ensuing free throw, but Perez stole the rebound and found Beauchemin for a dunk to bring the crowd to its feet.
Juanita Sanchez tried to get back into the game by fouling in the final three minutes, but Beauchemin and Perez both knocked down a pair of free throws.
“It was 27-27 at halftime and then we just started passing the ball really well and our defense really showed up,” Perez said.
Lincoln led by as many as six points in the first half thanks to 3-pointers from Nick Jucket, Myels Nuey and Beauchemin, but The Cavaliers exploited the host’s transition defense to even the score at 20. The Cavaliers went ahead late in the half, but Nathan Fay helped send the game into the second half tied at 27.