Indians rout Prouty 66-38

Givens-Perry comes alive

By Steev Riccardo

The Bartlett Indians played a solid 32 minutes of basketball and soundly beat the David Prouty Panthers 66-38 last Thursday night Feb. 2) at the Bartlett gym.

The win was one of the most balanced efforts of the season for the Indians as they scored 16-16-18-16 by the quarter and were paced by a strong all-around game from sophomore Alex Givens-Perry, who had a monster inside game with 19 points and 12 rebounds

Givens-Perry sported new look glasses and came out of the locker room like a hurricane, scoring the first five points of the game and pacing the Indians in a 16-9 opening stanza.

Senior co-captain and top ten Central Mass scorer Nick Kobel took over where Givens-Perry left off in the second quarter, scoring 8 points and leading the home team to a 32-17 half-time lead.

The Indians didn’t miss a beat in the third quarter as it was Givens-Perry’s turn, and the forward was a brute inside, scoring seven points and dominating the inside. Kobel and junior Akeem Belnavis each buried three pointers and the rout was on.

Belnavis scored three quick hoops in the final quarter and before long Bartlett Coach Tony Paranto had emptied his bench and the team had secured their all-important tenth victory of the season.

Paranto was happy with his team’s effort despite a lack of outside shooting, ““Even though we were 0-10 from 3-point land in the first half, we attacked the basket very well.”

Givens-Perry gave the Indians the inside presence they needed. If he plays like that every night, it is going to open up a lot of doors for Bartlett’s shooters, especially Kobel and Belnavis, a theory confirmed by the coach, “if he can stay consistent on the low post, it is going to open up our outside game.”

Only a sophomore and still working on his consistency, Givens-Perry has the tools to help the10-5 Indians get hot when it matters most.

Even though they have been up and down the last few games, The Indians are still the highest scoring team in the Southern Worcester County League and when they play their game, they will be hard to beat.

Despite beating Shepherd Hill in a huge game ten days ago, the Indians sandwiched that win with a couple of tough losses that the coach reflected on. “I don’t think we played up to our capabilities in those games (Tantasqua, Oxford) it’s a credit to those teams for taking us out of our strengths, which is getting up and down the court and controlling the tempo of the game.”

They controlled the tempo on Friday and good things happened.

The Bartlett Junior Varsity lost to the Warriors jayvees 56-48. Anthony Higbie continued to be one of the bright spots scoring 21 points in a losing effort. He also had 16 in a 74-56 loss to Tantasqua last Monday.

Indian Notes: Earlier in the week, the Indians were lulled into a trance and taken apart by a very good Tantasqua Warriors team 77-69 at home. Kobel led the Indians in the loss with 22 points while DJ Kirby-Thomas added 15 and Belnavis scored 11.

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