Indians handle Spartans 71-60

 in exciting SWCL battle

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

WEBSTER – Junior Alex Givins-Perry had 20 points, six in the last minute, to lead the Bartlett Indians past the Uxbridge Spartans 71-60 in a fast-paced Southern Worcester County League battle Tuesday (January 22) night.

The Indians, coming off a tough loss at home to Douglas, came out with a different look with sophomore Jacob Simonis making his first varsity start.  Simonis has been playing solid ball for the junior varsity and is capable of giving the varsity some instant offense if they need it.

Senior co-captain Matt Huberdault, speaking of instant offense, buried a pair of 3-point shots and helped the Indians get out to an 18-16 lead after one quarter.

Huberdault continued his sharp shooting, hitting his first two 3-point attempts of the second quarter and the Indians were rolling and suddenly had a 24-16 lead.

Simonis then showed us why he was playing as he hit two 3-point bombs and the Indians took a comfortable 43-31 lead to the locker room at half time.

The 9-3 Spartans were not about to roll over and outscored the Indians 19-14 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 57-50 as both teams picked up their defensive intensity.

At one point in the fourth quarter, the Spartans cut the lead to four points, but Givins-Perry made four huge free throws and scored on a breakaway basket after making a steal and the Indians had iced the game.

Indians coach Tony Paranto was pleased with the win. “This is a signature win for us, we are sitting at 9-1 in the conference, we are doing pretty good.”

“We knew that they had two prolific scorers in (Kenny) Paulhus and (Mark) Devries and for the most part I thought we did a good job neutralizing their strengths. We emphasized that the last few days at practice and if we take away two of their scorers then we take away two of their weapons,” said Paranto.
 

The lineup change also appeared to help the Indians. ‘We knew that they play a zone and we struggled a little bit from the perimeter against Douglas and I thought (Jacob) Simonis did a good job from the outside.”

Paranto was also impressed with Givins-Perry, who had his way down low on several occasions. “His athleticism creates mismatch problems. I think he took it upon himself and we challenged him too and he stepped up to that challenge tonight.”

Givins-Perry also  had 17 rebounds to go along with 20 points. Huberdault finished with 16 points, while Akeem Belnavis had 11 to help the Indians get to 10-3.

The Bartlett jayvees continued to play solid basketball as well, also improving to 10-3 with a 68-66 win over the Spartans. Eight grade phenom Anthony Grzembski led all scorers with 18 points while Kody Morio and Justin Speights each had eight points.

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