Ludlow Pulls Away Late to Top McCann Tech
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Ludlow boys basketball team Friday broke open a back-and-forth game with a 19-2 fourth quarter run en route to a 55-42 win over McCann Tech.
Daudy Guerrero scored 24 points, and Braden Schwartz added 12 to lead the Leons (12-3, 8-0 Tri-County North) to a season sweep of the Hornets.
McCann Tech, which dropped a 52-35 decision when the teams met in Ludlow, led, 38-36, when Owen Demers scored in transition in the second minute of the fourth quarter.
But it was all Ludlow from there.
Stephen Goodreau got an and-1 at the other end 15 seconds later to erase McCann Tech’s lead, and the Lions scored five more points before Walter Mazza (11 points) scored from the foul line to make it 44-40 with 4:55 to play.
The Lions scored the next 11 points, including 5-for-6 from the line by Guerrero, to go ahead by 14 with 34 seconds left to play.
“We switched defense in the second half to a 3-2,” Ludlow coach Cliff Zimmer said. “In the first half, they were beating us on the outside. We were playing 2-3 zone, and they were making a bunch of 3s. … We made some adjustments offensively, too, which we feel helped us.
“But, all-in-all, it was just a gritty win, total team effort.”
McCann Tech coach said the schedule caught up to his Hornets, who Friday played their third game in four nights.
“I think we just ran out of gas, to be honest,” Bullett said. “Back-to-back away games earlier in the week. Everybody’s banged up. We fought through it. We played a good 20 minutes, 25 minutes or whatever, but we didn’t have what we needed to close.
“Credit to those guys. They’ve got a bunch of seniors on their team. They closed really well.”
Ludlow opened with a 7-0 spurt that spanned the first and second quarters to take the game’s first significant lead at 20-13.
But McCann Tech (9-6, 4-4) roared back with eight in a row.
Mazza got things started with a 3-pointer, and Jacob Howland (18 points) scored three points in the run, which ended in a 21-20 lead on a pair of Jack Dolan free throws midway through the second.
The teams then traded leads from there into the fourth.
Ludlow, the only Division 2 team in the Tri-County North, has already qualified for the state tournament in its division.
D5 McCann Tech needs one win in its next five games to get there.
“We’ll take the weekend off,” Bullett said. “These guys are resilient. They’ve been resilient all year. They’ll recover a little bit, and we’ll get back at it against Mount Everett, on Tuesday, I believe it is.
“I have no doubt that we’ll come back hard next week because they’re pretty frustrated right now. They’re a good group of kids, very coachable, so they’ll be there next week. We’ll get that 10th win.”
The Hornets travel to Sheffield to take on the Eagles on Tuesday.