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North Andover shackles Andover

NORTH ANDOVER — The last thing Andover's sputtering offense needed to see was a driven North Andover High club, still stinging from their last venture into the Merrimack Valley Conference.

From the opening tip, North Andover put the clamps down on the suddenly-swooning Warriors. The Knights kept to their business — remembering full well Lawrence's stunning comeback in December — holding the Warriors at a safe distance in the 45-36 win.

"You know the Andover-North Andover history, the wins are special," said Knights coach Mike McVeigh.
"We knew they'd make a run, but at that point our kids made huge baskets, huge sets. We did all the things we didn't do against Lawrence in the Christmas tournament."

North Andover's defensive gameplan centered around stopping top guns Sam Dowden (17.1 ppg.) and James Costello (12.8).

Dowden was held scoreless in an opening 25-12 half, allowed to get off just one shot while Costello scored four points on 2 of 6 shooting.

"All week at practice, we've been thinking about containing ball. Just make them make tough shots and box out, and we kept them under 40," said junior forward Isaiah Nelsen. "We wanted to focus on those two guys, keep it out of their hands, then worry about the other guys."

The Knights again displayed plenty of balance with three players in double figures led by Zach Karalis with 11. Nelsen and Mike Moroney chipped in 10 apiece.

 "It's a bbig game, and this time we stayed composed," said Nelsen. "That loss hurt us a lot. We're doing everything in our power to not let that happen again."

In addition to the win, North Andover got seriously good news on the injury front as senior point man Colby Smith played in his second game back and logged serious minutes. Also, junior all-league Derek Collins, dressed, warmed up and actually was inserted to the game with 3.5 seconds left to play. Collins is coming back from November back surgery.

But this one, which improved North Andover's season mark to 11-1, was more about the defense and about Andover's offensive woes.

The Warriors have now dropped 4 of 5 and stand at 8-6 overall.

Chris Dunn and Costello each had 11 each for Andover, while Dowden finished with 5 on 2 of 8 shooting.