Danvers Boys Roll Over Greater Lowell with Strong Second Half

After a close first half, the Falcons’ basketball squad pulled away with a big playoff win over Greater Lowell Technical High School, 62-47, Thursday night at Danvers High in front of a packed gymnasium. It was a perfect start to the boys’ postseason journey.

After the game, Danvers head coach John Walsh talked about junior center George Merry’s contributions and the win.

“He (Merry) was in foul trouble early and he had to sit. He came through like I knew he could in the fourth quarter,” Walsh said.

In the fourth, Merry had multiple three-point plays – layups and a foul shot to follow, and he never missed a foul shot, which helped Danvers pull away for good.

“His free-throw percentage is up there, right around the 70 percent mark for the season,” added Walsh of his 6-foot-7 center.

Merry led the game in scoring among both teams with 21 points and dominated the offensive and defensive rebounds, but was not the only factor for the Falcons. Senior co-captain Sean Mahegan was dominant as well, scoring 17 points. Mahegan’s acrobatic style proved too much for the Gryphons, using a reverse layup with spin off the glass early in the game, swatting a 3-point attempt out of bounds and a buzzer-beater layup – all in the first quarter – got the crowd into it for good. Greater Lowell could not contend with Mahegan’s speed and passing ability.

“We used our speed to get them off their game plan; we forced them to go man-to-man and our goal was to keep them under 50 points and we did that. I knew if we did do that we had a great chance to win this game with our size and speed,” said Walsh.

The Falcons had to deal with the Gryphons Kevin Ma, a 5-foot-8 guard who could launch 3-pointers from anywhere. He led Greater Lowell in scoring with 15 points. Fellow guard, 5-6 Domenic Dar also added 10 points, but the lack of height contributed to the Gryphon’s downfall. The team’s tallest player at 6-foot-1 was no match for the Falcons’ height with Merry and Mahegan (6-2).

Although with Merry in foul trouble, Greater Lowell made it a game early on. After one quarter, the game was tied up at 15, but Mahegan came out in the second and continued his overall dominance, starting the quarter off right with a 3-pointer. Teammate Eric Martin then added his own highlight reel coast-to-coast no-look layup, which seemed to rattle the Gryphons, and put Danvers up 22-17 and force Greater Lowell to spend a timeout early in the second. Danvers never looked back. At the half, the Falcons were up 30-22.

In the third, Mahegan would start the scoring again after a powerful offensive rebound. Then senior co-captain Cormick Powers drained a three to go up 35-22. The Falcons held Greater Lowell scoreless in the opening three minutes of the second half, which forced the Gryphons to press on defense and abandon their game plan. That style was exactly what Danvers could hope for, opening up the floor and freeing up Merry.

With 2:52 left in the third, Merry scored the basket of the game, drawing a foul. Sinking his free throw put the Falcons up by 10. And in the fourth quarter it was more of the same. Greater Lowell got within six, but Danvers kept the Gryphons shooting from outside and handled just about every defensive rebound.

The Falcons cleaned up nicely in their first postseason win in several years, moving on to the quarterfinal round on Saturday against Wayland. The Wildcats are the No. 2 seed in the Division Three North tournament (Danvers is No. 7, Greater Lowell was 10th) and will host Saturday’s game at Regis College at 7 p.m.