SENIOR CAPTAIN Logan Scribner scored 12 points in a win over Wilmington and 18 in a season-opening win over Amesbury. (Eric Evans Photo)
NORTH READING — The North Reading High boys’ basketball team has started a promising campaign with a record of 3-2 as they enter 2023.
The Hornets started their season with a win over Amesbury (81-51), before falling to Pentucket (58-39) and Shawsheen (73-51) in back-to-back games.
North Reading has bounced back with two consecutive road wins, first 58-54 over Wilmington on Dec. 30 and then 60-37 over Triton on Tuesday.
North Reading will rematch Shawsheen on Thursday night, 7 p.m. at home.
The Hornets are a senior-laden team this year with eight seniors on the roster led by tri-captain and returning CAL All-Star Andrew Boulas. Logan Scribner and Alex Carucci are also captains.
The remaining seniors include Matt Guidebeck, Kevin Doble, Sam Morelli, Brady Miller and Anthony Pino, many returning from NR’s 15-7 squad last season, a team that made the state Round of 16.
“This is a tremendous group of kids…close knit and they play well together,” said head coach Joe Casey. “We’ve got a lot of 2-3 sport athletes that are terrific competitors that have contributed to the overall success of the athletic program here at NRHS the past few years.”
The Hornets have one junior on the team: Eli Nikolopoulos. They have two sophomores: Andrew Taylor and Parker Griffin, both newcomers to the varsity and both already contributing valuable minutes.
The team’s lone freshman, Jason Berry, has scored 7 points in both of North Reading’s last two games, showing “tremendous poise for a freshman,” according to Casey. “He has the potential to be an outstanding player for us down the road.”
Building on the theme of the team’s multi-sport athletes, seven of the 12 players on the roster were on the state championship football team this fall and two played for a successful soccer team as well, creating a winning pedigree that coach Casey hopes translates to the court.
“We’ve got good athletes who work hard,” said the coach. “We are still trying to find our identity a bit and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. We have been a little inconsistent on both ends of the floor so far.”
This was evident in the team’s first four games. Against Amesbury, the offense scored 50 first-half points en route to the 81-50 win.
“We shot the lights out in the first half and shot 52 percent from the floor overall,” said Casey.
Boulas had a career-high 29 points in that win. Scribner had 18 and Griffin added 12.
The Hornets had a 29-23 halftime lead over Pentucket but only scored 10 points in the second half en route to a 58-39 loss, only shooting 24 percent from the field.
The team’s best win of the season came in Wilmington on Friday. Down 30-28 at the half, the Hornets ramped up the intensity on defense with Carucci setting the tone.
“His effort in our full court press really gave us a spark and we took a comfortable 50-42 lead,” said Casey of his captain.
According to Casey, the Hornets got careless with the ball down the stretch but a key Griffin steal followed by two free throws by Scribner with two seconds left sealed the win at 58-54.
Boulas led all scorers with 20. Scribner had 12.
“We are not a team that can afford to give up a lot of points,” said Casey. “The key to our success this year will be on the defensive end. We are making good progress and headed in the right direction.”