Anderson, Cumberland stymie Purple
Sophomore nets 11 points to get Clippers back on track
CUMBERLAND – Sophomore Seth Anderson, an ever-improving 6-7 center, indicated that Cumberland High had been trying to forget an awful, one-point loss to Central on Wednesday night, a tilt in which his Clippers coughed up a mammoth late lead.
He admitted it hadn’t been easy. Senior teammate and captain Dante AvilesSoares, however, found a perfect way to remedy his teammates’ 48-hour heartache during another Division I clash opposite Classical on Friday evening.
He nailed four treys in the span of 1:47 midway through the first stanza, closed the half with 16 points and the contest with a game-high 19 to propel Cumberland to a season-twisting 59-48 victory over the Purple inside the Wellness Center.
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With only 5:36 elapsed after the opening tip, sophomore Marquis Buchanan downed a trey to give Classical the 12-8 cushion. It appeared head coach Gary Reedy’s crew hadn’t learned its lesson from 48 hours before.
But then came the Aviles-Santos Show. He nailed his first 3-pointer 31 seconds later, then another 35 ticks after that to push Cumtberland in front by two (14-12).
Buchanan hit a flying one-hander with precisely nine minutes left in the session, but Aviles-Soares calmly drained a pair of bombs din the span of 39 seconds, and – suddenly – the Clippers had turned a 12-8 deficit into a 20-14 cushion with 8:06 left.
Sophomore guard Colin Mories then canned a one-hand, fallaway prayer, senior Shane Meerbott a putback, Mories a trey then a pull-up 15-footer and junior Jackson Walsh a trifecta with 3:35 remaining. r At that point, the Clippers led, 32-15, courtesy of a 24-3 surge in the span of 6:49.
Not just that, but in the final 9:53 of the half, the hosts outscored their foes, 33-8, good for a demonstrative 41-20 cushion.
“We were down, but then Dante went crazy; he hit four straight threes, and the kid just amazes me,” offered a grinning Anderson, who himself contributed a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. “He can just take over a game. Four treys, that’s 12 points, and he turned the whole game around.
“He’s something to watch, that’s for sure,” he added. “On Wednesday night, we lost by a point, and that was a learning experience.
We knew we had to finish, but we took that second half for granted. We weren’t going to do that this time. We knew we had to come out here with a lot of energy and close it out.”
Aviles-Soares not only notched 19 points but 12 assists, while Mories closed with nine points and Walsh with eight. For the Purple (3-5 league), senior Khalil Screen manufactured 17 points, classmate Anthony Mendez 14 and fellow senior Henrey Lamar nine.
The Clippers improved to 4-7 overall and, most importantly, 2-5 in D-I.
“We finally had our breakout game,” Reedy stated afterward. “We had lost two games right before this by a total of two points, so we’ve been on the verge. Now the kids are showing some energy, and hopefully, this will start getting them to believe. Hopefully, this will raise their confidence.
“This is a good team, young, but good,” he added. “This is just what we needed coming off that (Central game).”
Besides the last three-plus minutes, when Classical dominated the CHS reserves, the closest the Purple would get before that was 18. Senior Ben Keeler’s baseline trey with exactly four minutes remaining had lifted the Clippers to the 57-34 advantage.
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CLASSICAL (48) – Khalil Screen 5 4-6 17, Henrey Lamar 3 3-6 9, Anthony Mendez 5 3-3 14, Evenson St. Franc 1 0-0 2, Marquis Buchanan 2 0-1 5, Ned Fitzpatrick 0 0-0 0, Rahim Ashley-Bangura 0 0-0 0, Tosin Awosika 0 0-0 0; totals 16 11-16 48. CUMBERLAND (59) – Dante Aviles-Soares 6 3-5 19, Seth Anderson 5 1-2 11, Jackson Walsh 3 0-0 8, Colin Mories 3 2-2 9, Will Andrews 1 0-0 2, Ben Keeler 1 0-0 3, Jack Proctor 0 0-2 0, Shane Meerbott 1 0-2 2, Brendan Raftery 2 0-0 5, Shane Calabro 0 0-0 0, Cody Plumer 0 0-0 0; totals 23 6-13 59.
Three-point field goals: Screen 3, Mendez,
Soares 4, Walsh 2, Raftery.
Halftime: Cumberland, 41-20.
Buchanan,
Aviles