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Andover Golden Warriors Boys Basketball '21-'22

Thu, Mar 03, 2022 06:30 PM @ Andover
Team 1 2 3 4 Final
St. John's Shrewsbury 21 8 12 5 46
Andover 15 14 20 11 60

Andover fends off St. John's

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Thursday, March, 03 By Jeff Hamrick
Correspondent

ANDOVER – With the underdog visitors forcing their way into a tie at intermission, Andover coach David Fazio challenged the best player on the court to take command.

Aidan Cammann didn’t disappoint.

After watching St. John’s of Shrewsbury, seeded 18th in the Division 1 state tournament, take a two-point lead early in the third, Cammann scored 13 of his team’s final 16 points in the quarter, sparking the Golden Warriors to a 60-46 victory.

“I said to him at halftime: you didn’t come back here just to come back here,” Fazio said. “You came back here to cement your legacy. You could have gone to prep school. You didn’t come back here to lose in the first round of 32. So, he finally got going. He can do everything.”

Indeed he did, adding four rebounds and a steal during the surge.

St. John’s seventh and final three-pointer of the match provided the Pioneers a 36-33 lead. But Cammann scored the Warriors next seven, opening a 41-39 lead when a slick move down low turned into a three-point play with 2:09 remaining.

A pullup in the lane and another tough move in the paint resulted in another three-point play to cap Andover’s 16-8 run, taking an eight-point lead into the final quarter.

“I didn’t want this to be the last game of the season,” said Cammann, who finished with a game-high 26. “We needed to get the win.”

The victory sends third-seeded Andover (19-2) into the Sweet 16 against the winner of tonight’s game between No. 14 Winchester and No. 19 Natick.

Advancing, however, didn’t come easy against 10-game winner St. John’s as the Pioneers came out shooting, converting all five of their first-quarter three-point attempts. St. John’s opened an early eight-point lead en route to a 21-15 lead after one, making eight of its 10 shots.

“We watched them on tape and we watched them in person,” Fazio said. “I don’t think we saw them hit that many threes in any of the tapes I watched of them. But a credit to them.”

Andover slowed the Pioneers in the second, taking a tie at 29 into halftime.

“I was astonished by how bad we were defensively,” Fazio said. “I looked up and they had 21 after one. I couldn’t believe it. Then we cut that thing in half (in the  second) and then we recovered.”

The Warriors turned 11 turnovers the final nine minutes of the game into 16 points while holding the Pioneers to seven points. St. John’s managed only five shots from the floor in the fourth, missing each of them. Andover surrendered five points in the fourth, the ninth time this season, the Warriors held an opponent to six or fewer in a frame.

“(Fazio) has always prioritized defense and we didn’t come out great,” Cammann said. “They definitely shot well, and we weren’t contesting them the way we wanted to. He made it a priority afterward. We had to make sure we contested everything. They didn’t get easy looks, and it turned out really well.”

The game featured coaches who entered with a combined 1461 victories. A few weeks after winning his 500th, Fazio got the better of Bob Foley, the state’s winningest coach with 957 victories in his 59th season.

 

Resendiz dunk

Andover finished the third quarter with a convincing 16-8 run to take command of its Division 1 tournament opener, but it was the first bucket of the fourth that likely sealed the victory.

Taking an outlet pass from Logan Satlow, Danny Resendiz had an open court and a couple dribbles to decide his next course of action.

“I knew we needed a little energy, so I said I got to go for it,” Resendiz said.

The 6-1 guard won’t be bragging about his air time, but the sophomore got high enough to finish off the one-handed dunk.

“I guess I was thinking dunk,” Resendiz said. “Me and Logan have had a little friendly competition to see who got the first dunk of the season, so I guess now I have him beat.”

Satlow, a 6-foot-7 senior, didn’t regret his assist.

“He’s a young one, so he’s always trying to get under our skins,” Satlow said of the underclassman. “He’d say if he got a dunk before me, I’d have to quit the team. But I don’t care as long as we’re winning playoff games. He can dunk before me all day long. I loved it.”

Fellow big-man Aidan Cammann also was impressed.

“That was great,” Cammann said. “I love to see him dunk it. It really got the place going. It hasn’t been that loud in here in a while. It was definitely a pick-me up.”

Game Statistics:

St. John's (46): Malakhi Knight 4 2-3 12, Nick Barnes 4 0-0 11, Anthony Perron 3 0-0 8, George Eiermann 1 2-4 4, Noah Basgaard 3 2-2 8, Jayson Njoroge 1 1-2 3, Ryan Miller 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 7-11 46

Andover (60): Ryan MacLellan 3 1-2 8, Richie Shahtanian 6 0-0 15, Danny Resendiz 2 0-0 4, Logan Satlow 3 0-3 7, Aidan Cammann 10 5-6 26, Rohit Srinivasan 0 0-0 0, Lincoln Beal 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Briggs 0 0-0 0, Gavin LeBrun 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 6=11 60

3-pointers: SJ — Barnes 3, Knight 2, Perron 2; Andover — Shahtanian 3, MacLellan, Satlow, Cammann

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