Eagles Go Deep to Tame Tigers, 58-38 [VIDEO]

Three days before Christmas, the boys’ basketball team did a little shopping “downtown” Thursday night.

Four different Eagles drained a total of 10 three-point shots en route to a convincing 58-38 victory over in a Division II-East game played in Barrington. The contest was the first at home this winter for Barrington after five successive road outings.

Ben Engvall scored 13 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as the Eagles widened a 13-point halftime lead into 27 points within the opening six minutes of the final period and coasted to their second divisional victory in three decisions and evened their season record at 3-3. Tiverton dropped to 1-2 in league play and 2-4 overall.

Jesse Browne (12) and Jack Wenzel (10) also finished in double digits for the winners and joined Engvall and freshman Corey Daugherty (7 points) in swishing treys to wreck the Tigers’ zone defense and upset hopes. Barrington trailed just once during the game, used an 11-0 burst to take command in the first half and manufactured a 15-0 blitz early in the second session to win going away.

“Tiverton played a lot of zone and tried to force us to shoot from the outside, but we hit some early and developed confidence,” said Eagle Coach Patrick Sullivan. “I thought we had very good ball movement in our half-court offense which led to some very good shots. At halftime, we stressed getting better ball movement on offense and being patient.”

And it paid off. Barrington built a 34-21 lead by the break and Engvall single-handedly ruined the Tigers’ comeback prospects by netting 13 points in the first 4:45 of the second half. With the Eagles holding a 37-25 lead, Daugherty bottomed a three-pointer from the top of the key and Engvall took over, bottoming two treys and two lay-ins to account for 10 unanswered points, before Wenzel dropped in a lay-up to expand Barrington’s bulge to 52-25 with 10:25 remaining.

“Ben played very well tonight and was very good in the open floor,” Sullivan said. “He also nailed some three-pointers for us.”

For the record, Browne sank four treys (all in the first half), Engvall added three, Wenzel swished two and Daugherty had one.

Kyle Vasconcelos topped Tiverton with 8 points, Geoff McNally finished with 7 points and Josh Lis and Alex Cotton both contributed 6 points.

After Alex Rosa gave the Tigers their only lead of the night at 2-0 with a put-back just 15 seconds after the opening tip, the Eagles ran off 11 straight points as Wenzel dropped in a pair of three-pointers and Browne had one trey. Tiverton struggled offensively, missing several easy shots, while its match-up 2-3 zone defense was ineffective in containing Barrington’s perimeter attack.

“I thought we had some good opportunities to stay in the game in the first half, but we missed too many easy shots,” said Tiger Coach Jerry Arcouette. “It’s tough for us to fall behind and then fight back; we have to make hay when the opportunity presents itself.”

To its credit, Tiverton clawed back to within 17-11 after two McNally free throws and trailed by only a 25-18 deficit with less than three minutes to go in the opening chapter when Engvall collected a lay-up and two charity tosses, Nick Raymond put back a missed free throw attempt and Browne drilled a trey to give the hosts their 34-21 advantage at intermission.

Both teams will be idle until Wednesday when they host two-day holiday tournaments. Barrington will face Holy Name High School of Worcester, Mass., Wednesday and Mt. Hope High School of Bristol Thursday in the Barrington Boosters Holiday Tournament, while Tiverton will challenge Middletown High School Wednesday and Portsmouth High School Thursday in the East Bay Christmas Tournament.

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