Tag Archives: Matt Talbot

January 27, 2012 · 11:36 pm

Super Start Earns Ipswich a 70-54 Win Over Amesbury in Boys Basketball

Erik Fyrer attempting layup. The 6-4 sophomore finished with twenty-one points and sixteen rebounds.

Brenden Gallagher – 12 points

Dan OFlynn – 18 points

(Ipswich) I am not sure that the Ipswich Tigers could play any better.

The Tigers demolished Amesbury, 70-54, in a Cape Ann League game on Friday night at Ipswich.

Ipswich (2-5 Cape Ann League / 3-9 overall) put an excellent everything on the Indians for 1 ½ quarters and presto the visitors were looking at a 31-7 deficit.

You want defense. The Tiger pressure forced eleven Amesbury first half turnovers.

You want scoring. Ipswich had 6-4 Erik Fyrer (21 points) dominating in the paint while Brenden Gallagher (12 points with three 3’s) and Dan O’Flynn (18 points with four 3’s) stroked accurately from long range. It was quite a show.

Amesbury had defeated Ipswich in the first meeting (60-56) in overtime and had won three of their last five so there wasn’t any certainty even with a 31-7 lead that the Tigers (losers of seven of their last eight) could hold the lead. But they did.

Mike Zelinsky (16 points) in the lane

Amesbury (1-5 in CAL / 4-10 overall) actually “won” the last 2 ½ quarters (47-39) mostly via the long ball – they made nine of them. However, that early deficit was way too much to recover from.

Ipswich would get the lead to 38-11 on a Louie Galanis triple from Brenden Gallagher with less than two minutes in the first half. Early in the final quarter a couple of 3’s by Dan O’Flynn pushed the Tigers ahead, 58-32.

The Indians answered with two minutes of their best basketball, running ten straight thanks to 3’s from Curran O’Connor and Tommy Connors and layups by Matt Talbot and Jack Fortin. This rush of points caused Tiger coach Alan LaRoche to call a timeout, as his team’s twenty-six point lead had shrunk to sixteen.

I heard shouting during the timeout and the Tigers responded in the next minute with a jumper from Tyler Hale and a three from Dan O’Flynn, both hoops assisted by Erik Fyrer. This put the lead back into the comfort zone and both team’s reserves finished out the last four minutes.

Erik Fyrer had a terrific game. In the first meeting, Erik got into foul trouble and played short minutes. Not this time. The sophomore was a big part of the Tigers’ fast start, collecting ten points early on. He owned the boards too, grabbing sixteen rebounds (Thanks, Mitch MacDonald) and blocked several shots. The normal righty showed a good left hand on one inside move.

Matt Talbot (14 points) in Ipswich traffic

Mike Zelinksy (16), Matt Talbot (14), and Tommy Connors (11) led the Amesbury scorers.

Mike tossed up a no-look, backhanded layup that had no business going in……..but did.

The Ipswich student section and the Amesbury student section did their best to out-do each other. Tough for the Amesbury kids since their team trailed big early and never really threatened to overtake the Tigers.

Ipswich next plays at Georgetown on January 30th. I saw Ipswich defeat G’Town in the first meeting.

Amesbury gets Lynnfield at home on January 31st.

Ipswich boxscore

Amesbury boxscore

(The pictures above and below will all enlarge if you click on them.)

where is the ball

Erik Fyrer and Curran OConnor

Dan OFlynn looks to pass

Erik Fyrer block of Matt Talbot shot

Louie Galanis draws charge from Devlin Gobeil

Tommy Connors

Matt Talbot (22 points) and Tyler Lay (20 points) Shoot Amesbury to a Win Over Ipswich 53-46

Tyler Lay (#20) and Matt Talbot (#5) shot Amesbury to their first win.

Amesbury team celebrates first win.

(Amesbury) Matt Talbot (22 points) and Tyler Lay (20 points) carried the Amesbury Indians (1-12) to their first win of the 2010-11 season against winless Ipswich (0-10) on Friday night by the score of 53-46.

This battle for Win #1 was tight through three quarters with eight lead changes.

Ipswich took the lead for the last time (35-34) on a pair of Dan O’Flynn (7 points) free throws with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Indians followed with a run of nine unanswered points that elevated them to a 43-35 advantage with five minutes left and put them in control the rest of the way.

Tyler tries to deny Doug Shaughnessy a pass.

Both Matt and Tyler were big in the winning surge. Matt (5-10) scored on a Rajon Rondo looking runner in the lane over 6-6 Doug Shaughnessy. Next he assisted on Sean Ward’s jumper. Tyler started the consecutive offense with an old-fashioned 3-point play to end the third quarter. Later he stripped Doug (they were matched up throughout the game) and went the length of the court for a two-handed jam. That dunk really fired up the Amesbury crowd as well as his teammates.

Thereafter, the Tigers cut the lead a couple of times to five points on the shooting of Brenden Gallagher (19 points) but could never get to the point of taking a shot that would tie the game.

Ipswich did themselves no favors in the final quarter by committing nine turnovers. Bad passes seemed to be the primary culprit. They had only eight turnovers over the previous three quarters.

Tyler did an excellent job in the middle of the Amesbury defense denying Doug (9 points) the ball and making every shot by the normally high scoring Ipswich captain a heavily contested one.

Brenden Gallagher (#10), here with Stephan Deas, led Ipswich with nineteen points.

Ipswich was an excellent 6-for-11 long range but made only one in the second half.

Both Matt and Brenden connected on four 3-point shots.

The shot-blocking interior of the Ipswich defense kept 5-4 Stephan Deas’ darts to the basket to a minimum.

Active Dan O’Flynn had numerous deflections in the first half.

Both teams missed eight free throws. My theory is that high school players practice more 3-point shots away from coach-directed practices than they do free throws. A stationary shot is different from all of the other shots attempted.

Amesbury 16 8 13 16 = 53
Ipswich 13 12 10 11 = 46

(I collect my own stats, take my own pictures, and draw my own conclusions. Errors are unintentional and unavoidable.)

Newburyport Boys Survive Slow Start Defeating Amesbury 52-44 In Season Opener

Amesbury coach Thom Connors and Newburyport coach Tom L’Italien chat before the season opener.

Clipper Chris Jayne tallied 13 points and did a nice job defending dangerous Stephan Deas of Amesbury.

(Amesbury) The Newburyport Clippers (1-0) survived a terrible start and defeated the Amesbury Indians (0-1), 52-44, in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday night at Amesbury.

The Clippers missed all seventeen shots they took from the field in the first quarter while the Indians missed all fourteen shots they took in the second quarter. First game jitters? Did that breeze from the outside escape into the gym?

The difference in the game? While Newburyport was shooting poorly in the first quarter, Amesbury could only put seven points on the board because the Indians had nine turnovers. On the other hand, when Amesbury turned cold in the second quarter the Clippers put together a 9-1 run to get the lead (11-8) and later nine straight to start to pull away, 22-12.

In that crucial second quarter Newburyport showed long range accuracy (Matt Leavitt/Zach Fenton/Chris Jayne) and inside strength with rebound conversions by Ian Michaels and Eric Meyer.

Matt Leavitt was covered closely (here by Stephan Deas) but his consecutive 3’s early in the second half gave Newburyport a 15-point lead.

Matt Leavitt put two 3’s together in the first minute of the 3rd quarter and Newburyport was away 30-15. In the 4th quarter it was Chris Jayne’s turn to put a couple of 3’s together and his twosome gave the Clippers a 49-30 spread with 4:40 left.

This was more than enough despite a late seven-point unanswered rush by Amesbury in the last 2:46 of the game.

The Clippers showed plenty of offensive weapons after the slow start. They also took very good care of the ball with just 13 turnovers – 3 of them came in the last frantic two minutes of the game.

The Clippers also have some outside shooters. Their top scorers (Matt Leavitt and Chris Jayne) each registered thirteen points.

I kept no rebound stats but you should know that Newburyport had 21 more shots than Amesbury. There were thirteen times that the Clippers had an extra shot at the basket. Amesbury had just five.

Matt Talbot led Amesbury’s scorers with 18 points. He didn’t create his own offense but could make an open shot including four 3’s in this one.

Stephan Deas ended up with fourteen points but an excellent defensive job by Chris Jayne was evident. Newburyport also employed a zone that gave Stephan few good looks. The speedy junior deserves the special attention.

A good crowd turned out for the season opener. It looked as if one Amesbury student got the gate while a Newburyport 26-0 sign didn’t last the entire game. The enthusiasm in both sections was evident.

(I keep my own stats, take my own pictures, and interview no one. Therefore, everything in this blog entry is unofficial statistically. Inaccuracies are unintentional.)