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Beverly boys seeking first North Shore Invitational title

Friday, February, 15 By Mike Grenier
Staff writer

Coach Scott Lewis and the Beverly High boys basketball team can justifiably take pride in upgrading the program in recent years.

The Panthers are rolling along with an 11-6 record this season and will be going to the state tournament for the third year in a row. Last year, Beverly went 12-8 and made its deepest postseason run in decades, reaching the Division 2 North semifinals before losing to Belmont.

However, there is one sore point for the Panthers | they've barely made a dent in the North Shore Invitational Tournament, which starts tomorrow and continues on Monday at Danvers High. Bishop Fenwick (8-8) will be Beverly's opening round opponent tomorrow at 4 p.m.

In the 10-year history of the North Shore Invitational, Beverly has advanced to the final just one time, losing to St. John's Prep last season. Prior to that, the Panthers were 0-9 in first round games.

It's a trend that Beverly badly wants to reverse.

"For some reason, we just haven't done well in the (North Shore Invitational)," said Lewis, whose team has to take care of business against Salem tonight before it can start concentrating on Bishop Fenwick.

"But we want to start doing better for a couple of reasons. We want to keep adding wins because we'd like to have a home game in the state tourney. And our kids know the history of the invitational. St. John's Prep is the overall favorite and rightfully so, but our kids will be up for it. They believe this could be the year."

Beverly, which has won eight of its last 10 games, has really picked it up since the return of senior forward Matt Tobin, who missed the first four games of the season. Tobin is averaging 15.4 points and 10.6 rebounds. Opposing defenses have to account for him at all times, which frees up players such as Nate Knudson (12.6), Matt McQuaid (9.4), Brian Skerry (5.9) and sophomores Mike Clayton (9.1) and Curtis Manuel (5.6), who can be instant offense off the bench.

"Matt is our best player and he can score from just inside the 3-point line or down low," said Lewis. "Nate (Knudson) has played so much better since Tobin came back. Everybody is breathing easier. At 6-foot-3, Tobin is a shotblocker and he has such good hands that he catches everything. I still don't think we've seen the best of him. It wouldn't surprise us if he plays even better down the stretch."

Meanwhile, sophomores Clayton and Manuel have been a pleasant surprise. Clayton is a speedy point guard who's been getting better at distributing the ball and scoring key baskets, and Manuel has impressed Lewis with his defense.

"We didn't want to put all the pressure on Mike to be the point guard last year because he was so young, but he's been playing great this season," said Lewis, "and Manuel gives us another threat with his midrange game and he's a terrific defender. Curtis has also had to defend the best guards in the Northeastern Conference."

Beverly's road to the invitational final won't be easy. Bishop Fenwick is on the bubble for the state tournament and has the most intimidating big man on the North Shore in 6-7 Mike Clifford, who is averaging 23 points and 16 rebounds a game. St. John's Prep (11-6), which is a seven-time invitational tourney champion, will be favored in the other semifinal against 2-15 Danvers. St. John's features senior guard Ryan O'Connell, who is the school's all-time scoring leader with 1,270 points.

"We have our work cut out for us," said Lewis, knowing his team still has something to prove.