Terrific shooting sends Georgetown past Amesbury 73-56

(Amesbury MA) Georgetown made shots from just about everywhere and overwhelmed Amesbury, 73-56, on Monday night in Cape Ann League action.

Before the game, it was announced that former Georgetown coach Mike Rowinski had passed away today from an undisclosed illness.  Mike had a 90-72 record in eight years coaching the Royals and had taken a leave of absence this season to deal with health issues.  His family is in my prayers.

The Royals (4-2 CAL/6-2 overall) destroyed the Amesbury zone defense with seven 3’s and seven baskets on rebounds.  If you’re playing a zone you know that the opponent will get outside chances…….you hope they’ll miss.  Giving up shots on the inside is supposed to be lessened by a zone defense.  However, on this night G’Town was trouble from any distance!

The scrappy Indians (2-4 CAL/2-5 overall) made a game of it early.  After Georgetown ran nine straight (three offensive rebound conversions and a Ben Denoncour three) to grab a 23-15 lead after one quarter, the Indians rallied back.  Pat Halloran, Pat Scanlon, and Fred Halloran put an eight-spot together to tie the score.

But the rest of that second quarter senior Ben Denoncour drained three 3’s and led the visitors to a 43-35 halftime advantage.

Ben made five long ones in the first half.  All of them were from the left corner in front of a very active Amesbury student section.  Didn’t seem to faze him!

The Indians were still within nine (46-37) early in the second half before a six-point Royals run (two inside scores by Pat Bjork and one by Matt Gott) boosted their lead to 52-37.  The margin reached twenty (70-50) halfway through the fourth quarter and reserves for both teams saw action the rest of the way.

6-5 Pat Bjork (19 points) caused problems for Amesbury every time he handled the ball in close.  Pat was a CAL All-League player in 2012-13.

The surprise, to me, was Matt Gott.  Matt (18 points) is listed at 6-2 but was able to find room in close to notch five baskets.  Matt was a CAL All-Star last season.

Senior Ben Noelk added twelve points for Georgetown.

Amesbury gave Georgetown too many good looks.  They also struggled against the G’Town zone to get good shots for themselves, especially second shots.  Missing nine of fifteen free throw attempts just made a tough night even more trying for the Indians.

Jack Fortin (13 points) and Pat Scanlon (10 points) paced Amesbury.

The Indians have now lost four straight.

Two first-year coaches (Tom Comeau – Amesbury and Barry Spears – Georgetown) were involved in this one.

The Royals were 4-16 last season while Amesbury was 10-11.

The Amesbury student section stayed active to the end led by their cheerleaders.

Amesbury will host Masconomet tomorrow night at 6:30PM while Georgetown will host North Reading at the same time.

Georgetown box

Amesbury box

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)