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Historic night for Perry, Andover

Thursday, February, 18 By Kyle Gaudette
Correspondent

ANDOVER - E.J Perry IV hit a free throw with three minutes left in regulation to score his 1000th career point for Andover, and the Golden Warriors held on down the stretch to take down Methuen, 83-76, Thursday night.

“It’s pretty cool to be up there with my uncle (Tim Perry, class of 1985),” said Perry of the Warriors 1,000-point club. “It’s a great milestone, but we've just got to keep winning. It was a bad stretch these last two games, and we had another bad stretch before that. We were just trying to right the ship, and it felt good to get a win.”

Perry’s 1,000th came at the most opportune time. Andover led 71-64 with four minutes left when Methuen’s Evan Hardy and David Dizazzo hit back to back threes to cut the deficit to one. The junior came down the court and exploded past his defender to the rim where he was fouled.

There was the normal silence that is always present when a member of the home squad approaches the line, but throughout the stadium you could see people leaning over to whisper to each what was about to happen. Perry let it fly, and the ball barely even hit the net as it swished purely through to an eruption from the crowd.

Play was momentarily stopped as a P.A announcement confirmed the achievement, and Perry left the line to go and hug his family and his coach.

“E.J. is great,” said Andover head coach David Fazio. “He’s a three-year-starter who comes from a great family. He’s a great kid, and I’m really proud of him. He made some big plays down the end, and we’re just happy for him and his family.”

Perry led Andover with 24 points and sealed the game for the Warriors with clutch free throws with under a minute to play. He was a perfect 9 of 9 from the line in the game.

“Whatever I have to do to get that win is the most important thing,” said Perry. “Whether that’s score twenty or get 10 assists or 10 rebounds. Whatever it takes. Tonight it happened to get me over a milestone and it’s cool, but it will be better after I graduate and can look back on it. For right now we’re just trying to get into the playoffs and get on a good roll.”

Andover got the victory tonight, but it did not come easily. It was a game of runs, and Methuen always seemed to go on one whenever it got down near double figures.

Methuen started with a quick 9-4 lead, but an 11-0 run by the Warriors capped by a Jonathan Rodriguez jumper made it 16-9 late in the first. Andover continued to hold around a five-point lead when Methuen’s Keegan Lannon hit a three to cut the lead to 28-26.

The three-ball kept the Rangers close the whole game. Methuen hit 13 threes as a team, five of those coming from Lannon. Andover stayed aggressive offensively, which led to an impressive 18-of-20 shooting performance from the line.

“We fought through a lot of adversity,” said Fazio. “I’m proud of these guys. It’s been a long season, and we’re going to make a run.”

Devon Beasley finished with 22 points, and Rodriguez added 17. Max Beati finished with 12 points and hauled in 9 rebounds.

Lannon led all Methuen scorers with 24. Andrew Marcelino added 21 points and 8 rebounds, and Dizazzo finished with 18 points.