Latin Academy uses balanced attack to top Charlestown in Boston City League semis

With a strike of chaos and a well-balanced score sheet Friday night, the Latin Academy boys basketball team is moving forward to the Boston City League tournament title game.

In true bits-and-pieces fashion, four Dragons (9-0) reached double-figures as part of a 61-46 win over Charlestown in a BCL tournament semifinal Friday, led by Mason Lawson’s fourth-quarter takeover of 10 straight points to put the game away. The Townies had given Latin Academy trouble with a few runs, but a high-intensity defensive effort created a heap of issues — 27 turnovers-worth — too problematic for Charlestown to overcome.

Dragons head coach Dan Bunker looked up at the school’s banner with just one City Tournament championship (1993) after the game, and noted how huge it was for his team to respond to a five-point second quarter with 19 points and 18 points in the third and fourth, respectively, to push them to Saturday’s tourney final against New Mission at 4 p.m.

“I thought Charlestown did a good job … keeping those kids motivated and playing a tough defense,” he said. “We came out and did a good job turning our defense into offense, and we weren’t able to do that necessarily in the second quarter.”

While a full-court defensive effort forced Charlestown into 10 turnovers en route to a 19-9 lead in the first quarter, BLA struggled to carry that as Steven Jean-Louis started bullying the inside to claw the Townies back in it. By halftime the game was tied at 24-24.

It didn’t take long for the Dragons to find their fire from there, though, starting the third quarter with a 7-2 run for some mojo. Jahmar Henry (seven points) hit a pair of shots to help Charlestown tie it up again, but a couple of long-awaited triples from Abdulahi Aden and a string of turnovers helped BLA to a 10-1 run and a 43-33 advantage.

Lawson (14 points, five rebounds, five assists) took over from there, all while Charlestown couldn’t get into a rhythm. Benny Martinez (11 points), Aden (10 points) and Osasu Woghiren (10 points) all joined Lawson in double-figures, but the 14 steals and 14 offensive rebounds the Dragons accrued were more telling.

Jean-Louis (11 points) was the Townies’ high-scorer, and Charlestown was held scoreless for three minutes twice.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2ZW4oFK