Amesbury falls to top-seeded Randolph's unrelenting press

Mar. 9—Like the West Virginia men's basketball team under coach Bob Huggins, or Virginia Commonwealth University under Shaka Smart, the Randolph boys basketball team just comes at you in waves.

And Amesbury found that out the hard way.

Playing the role of underdog, No. 17-seeded Amesbury hung around for a half, but eventually fell to top-seeded Randolph and it's full-court press, 59-36, in Tuesday's Division 4 Round of 16 game. Amesbury's season comes to an end at 13-9.

"Randolph is a very, very good team," said coach Tom Comeau. "They're aggressive, they're long and they're fast, and they full-court press the entire game. They work hard on defense and they try to turn you over. I think we did a great job with it in the first half, but we just got worn down in the second.

"Defensively I thought we were pretty good. With two minutes left in the first quarter we were up 4-2. So, defensively we were good, but offensively we just couldn't get anything going. They run 10 kids and sub quick and just full-court press the entire time. and that's tough to deal with."

Amesbury was also without key forward Max LaPointe, which made junior Nick Marden the team's lone big. Still, amongst the taller, athletic Randolph forwards, Marden had 15 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Seniors Cam Keliher, Matt Welch, Rocco Kokinacis, Keegan Collins and Jake Hallinan also all played well for Amesbury in defeat.

Randolph will now play No. 9 Wareham in the D4 quarterfinals Friday night.

"It was a fun ride," said Comeau. "We had a good run. I can't say enough about our seniors and what they did. There's absolutely no quit in them at all, and we're going to have some big shoes to fill next season. But we had a good year."

Randolph 59, Amesbury 36

Division 4 Round of 16

Amesbury (36): Keliher 3-0-6, Heidt 0-2-2, Kokinacis 3-0-6, Hallinan 0-0-0, Daileanes 0-0-0, Gjikopulli 0-0-0, Welch 5-0-12, Harring 0-2-2, Kimball 0-0-0, O'Neill 0-0-0, Marden 4-0-8. Totals 15-2-36

3-pointers: A — Welch 2

Amesbury (13-9): 8 8 9 11 — 36

Randolph (20-1): 8 13 20 18 — 59