ORANGE — A suffocating press and balanced scoring carried the Mahar Regional School boys basketball team in a 74-40 win over Southwick in the Senators’ home opener at Grzesik-Bixby Gymnasium on Thursday night.
Even when the Rams broke the press, the Mahar defense flew around producing turnovers in the independent contest. At the top of Mahar’s zone, Jake Tenney and Charlie Barnes combined for 11 steals.
“We had a lot of energy especially coming out,” Barnes said. “It showed. Jake Tenney was flying around. We had Noaha (Chabot) flying around too.”
The steals along with some Southwick turnovers jump-started Mahar’s offense to open the game. Mahar never trailed, taking a 7-0 lead behind the support of a loud student section.
A big third quarter helped the Senators (1-1) pull away. But there was a brief lapse in the intensity in the second quarter. The offense slowed some after the hot start and the Senators could not set up the press.
“The second half was much better,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “We had some initial success but we kind of got lazy with rotations.”
The lead reached double-figures in the first quarter, but some open shooters for the Rams cut their deficit to 26-22 just before halftime.
“We were thinking we were think 1986 Boston Celtics,” Softic said. “We got a little bit ahead of ourselves. We were celebrating plays and the basketball gods were watching and we just didn’t play well. We thought we were pretty special there for a while.”
Matt Lyesiuk hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to send the Senators into the intermission with an seven-point lead.
The Senators went on to outscore the Rams 23-6 in the third quarter. Chabot scored eight of his 15 points in the third frame. Chabot did some work on the glass, adding nine rebounds to lead Mahar in the category.
“We came out hot and then we sort of stopped for a little bit,” Barnes said. “We can’t do that in games in the future. We came out in the press and came out with more energy like we did in the beginning.”
Lyesiuk got going from outside for the Senators with 11 points on three 3-pointers. Barnes was also in double-figures with 16 points with five assists and six rebounds.
“Almost everyone scored tonight,” Barnes said. “It’s good to see that coming together. Everybody on the team is a threat this year. We are really well-rounded.”
Lyesiuk did well moving the ball around to teammates with five assists.
Zack Notre had an efficient game around the basket, scoring 11 points on 5-for-5 from the field.
“Once it got going we started to get some turnovers off the press,” Softic said. “Momentum really carried over and that was pretty much it.”
Mahar led 52-28 at the end of the third quarter.
The bench also got heavy playing time with several players scoring their first varsity points. Charlie Anderson, Aydan Sevigny, Gavin Sullivan, and Eli Spencer scored in the fourth quarter for the Senators.
The loudest cheer of the night came on a breakaway by Southwick (0-1). Luke Melanson caught up to the play in time to block the shot emphatically with Mahar maintaining possession on the denial.
Melanson followed with a short jumper on the offensive end.
The Senators travel to Quaboag Regional on Dec. 27 for their next game.
