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Balanced Hillies continue rolling

Friday, February, 07 By Jeff Hamrick

HAVERHILL – One of the area’s best comeback stories this winter has been brewing in Haverhill, where seemingly every night you can find a different star.

The new poster children for sharing the wealth, the Hillies continued their season of payback Friday night, running away from North Andover in the second half for a convincing 58-39 victory and defeating the Knights for the first time since North Andover rejoined the Merrimack Valley Conference in 2009.

For the third time in the past four games, six different Hillies put up at least seven points with none having more than 12.

“I like to have balanced scoring with everyone touching the ball and get a few points on the board,” junior forward Jeremyah Phillips said after Haverhill won an 11th game for the second straight year. “So, team scoring is very important to us. We don’t play selfish. We’ve had a couple upsets, and overall we’ve made some big improvements to our lineup.”

Phillips led the way against North Andover (3-10, 5-12), scoring a team-high 12 points with 14 rebounds and a couple blocks. And while he and Elijah Haas have each led the team in scoring three times, they are only two of the eight Hillies who have had game-high honors this season.

Brandon Donald, who had a 20-point night the third game of the season, and Haas, who had 18 in the seventh game, are the only players who have scored more than 17 points.

“This is like a blessing,” said Donald, one of three seniors. “We’ve started playing more like a team this year compared to last year. I love playing here. I’m going to remember it forever.”

And with nine Hillies having scored in double figures this year, Haverhill has shown the kind of versatility that will prove important in the postseason.

“We don’t particularly have that one scorer who comes out and gives us 15 to 20 points,” fourth-year coach Souleymane Wane said. “We’re not built like that. We hustle and try to run plays for shooters sometimes. And sometimes we try to go inside.

“We just try to mix things up based on what kind of game is in front of us. We can go inside and out. Scoring for us is not like other teams where you only have one or two leading scorers.”

A good example of Haverhill’s depth Friday was Angel Burgos, Zach Guertin and Haas, who combined for 27 bench points. Burgos immediately nailed two of his trio of three’s after entering in the first quarter while Guertin had five of his eight in the second and Haas seven of his eight after intermission.

Phillips and Phillip Cunningham (nine points, nine rebounds, two blocks) controlled the inside.

“We have guards who can score and shoot the ball a little bit, and we have big men finishing,” Wane said. “We have some big guys this year and it helps us on offensive rebounding and all the extra stuff as well.”

With three regular-season games remaining, Haverhill has a chance to eclipse the 12 wins they had in 2013 before returning to the Division 2 North sectionals with a chance to improve on last year’s one-and-done performance.

“I think we’ll have some momentum,” Phillips said. “We’ll be ready for everyone. We’re a better team than we were last year.”

Kyle Moore and Aidan Heim paced North Andover with 13 points each as the Knights were held to 13 points in the second half.