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Arias' late bucket sends Lawrence into semifinals

Sunday, March, 06 By Jeff Hamrick

WESTFORD — The Lawrence coaching staff has been trying to teach Yadoris Arias to be a little more orthodox with his shot selection.

Fortunately for the Lancers, the senior guard still knows when to get creative. And because of it, Lawrence's emotional and improbable run in the Division 1 North Sectional continues.

Arias hit a little running hook from a severe angle with 5.8 seconds left, providing the final points in an 81-80 quarterfinal victory against seventh-seeded Westford Academy yesterday afternoon. Next up for the 15th-seeded Lancers (15-8) is No. 3 Lynn English (21-2). The two school will play at Reading High on Wednesday at 7 p.m.  

"He takes a lot of those shots," Lawrence coach Paul Neal said. "We've actually been trying to get him to stop taking those kinds of shots."

After watching Westford (18-4) take an 80-76 lead — its third of the stanza — with 1:39 left in a back-and-forth final quarter, Jaylen Alicea cut the deficit to one with three free throws with 1:19 remaining. On its next two possessions, Westford missed a pair of field-goal attempts while Lawrence committed its sixth turnover of the fourth quarter, setting up Arias's game winner.

With about 8 seconds left, Arias took the ball from Alicea and tried driving the lane. The Grey Ghost defense forced him outside the paint, but before he ran out of court, Arias lifted and lofted his shot from about five feet to the right of the basket on the baseline, hitting nothing but net.

"I just wanted to go to the basket," said Arias, who also nailed a 3-pointer with 4:42 left that gave Lawrence one of its four leads in the final quarter, which also featured three ties. "It was for my team. It was a tough angle, but I knew where I was at."

The Lancers victory was secured when Mark Cornelius' try at his 34th and 35th points of the night on a driving layup rolled around the rim and out as time expired. And the team that lost four of its final six regular-season games, now is one of four teams left in the tournament.

"Most people thought (the Lawrence season) was ending two weeks ago when we lost to Mansfield (in the regular-season finale)," Neal said. "But if you get your opportunities, you can change things around. I just hope they believe they can get better. Once you get in the tournament and go win on the road it's all very special ... I don't want to see this all end."

Alicea continued his extraordinary tournament run by scoring 26 of his game-high 38 points in the first half, when the Lancers appeared to have the game well under control, leading by as many as 16 with less than 2 minutes left in the second. The senior has now scored 92 points in three sectional outings, including back-to-back games of 35 or more.

"Jaylen just played his butt off," said Arias, who finished with eight poinits and four steals. "He kept us in the game."

After leading by 11 entering the third quarter, Lawrence saw Westford use a 21-8 run to take its second lead of the game — and first since the 5-minute mark of the first — when a Cornelius layup put Grey Ghosts up 60-59 with 11 seconds left in the period. That set up the ferocious fourth quarter.

"Our goal was to get it down to four or five going into the fourth," said Westford coach Ed Scollan, whose squad attempted 14 more free throws than the Lancers (33-19). "But (Lawrence) is very quick ... You have to give them credit to go down to Cambridge and beat the (No. 2) team, then come here and win."