Ludlow Shoots Past McCann Tech
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The three ball sank the McCann Tech boys basketball team as they fell to Ludlow, 71-59, on Monday night.
Eric Rougeau led the way for McCann in their defeat with 19 points including 10 in the fourth quarter alone. Zach Howland chipped in with 14 and Kyle Rougeau added nine.
It’s been a struggle scoring the ball early on in the season for the Hornets but they had a promising start to this game on the offensive end. McCann Tech was able to attack the hoop early, really making the Ludlow defense work for every stop.
Howland started the game off with four quick points and a nice half court assist in transition to get the Hornets going. He finished the quarter with eight and had the McCann faithful on their feet as they looked to secure their first win of the season. The penetration and kick was McCann Tech’ss biggest positive as it had Ludlow collapsing on every drive to the hoop.
McCann was able to hold a slender 16-15 lead after the first quarter, and from then on the game got flipped upside down. In the second half the struggles on offense started to come for the Hornets as they could only score nine in the quarter.
Ludlow ramped things up on the offensive end and started to get some good looks at the rim forcing McCann into fouls early and often. Ludlow went 7-for-8 from the charity stripe in the quarter and used that to take a 29-25 lead into the break despite a nice run at the end of the quarter to bring it back close.
Second half action is where the game started to get away from McCann, with Ludlow shooting lights out from beyond the 3-point line. Ludlow’s Cam Lyman knocked down three straight 3-pointers on his way to 22 points on the night. Jackson Mateus also started to find his rhythm scoring 14 of his 19 on the night in the third. McCann was outscored 23-10 in the third quarter making it a 52-35 lead going into the fourth quarter.
McCann Tech didn’t give up and put the pressure on, forcing Ludlow into numerous turnovers that the Hornets used to sneak back into the game. After the troublesome third quarter, McCann was able to get the game within seven points, forcing Ludlow into timeout after timeout to try and stop the bleeding.
The Hornets looked like they were primed for the comeback, getting after every loose ball and offensive rebound to try and get this within reach, but after a tough basket, McCann was assessed a technical foul for taunting that really deflated the energy in the building. Ludlow then went on an 11-0 run itself to open this one back up and leave very little room for a comeback.
McCann will travel to Westfield Tech on Thursday in hopes of their first win of the season.