Sachems off to promising 3-0 start

  Before the season began, Saugus’s second-year boys’ basketball Head Coach Joe Bertrand talked about maintaining a positive attitude both on and off the court. That outlook has been on display thus far this season. With a home win over Winthrop on Monday, the Sachems improved to 3-0 on the young campaign.

  The three straight Ws to open the season represents one of the better and more promising starts for the Sachems in recent years. However, the momentum of that solid breakout suffered a bit of a detour when Wednesday’s scheduled game at Peabody was postponed, reportedly due to a COVID-19 protocol issue.

  The junior varsity (JV) squad did make the trip to Peabody and played its game. The Sachem JVs came up just short in a close 53-47 battle. In the case of the varsity, as of press time, Saugus was still set for a contest at Triton next Tuesday night.

  After opening the season with a win at Greater Lawrence Tech, the Sachems christened their new gymnasium last Friday night with an impressive 71-55 triumph over Danvers. Four players accounted for the majority of the offensive output, and the individual point totals were amazingly balanced among the foursome. Ryan Mabee was the top scorer with 18 points, followed by Jeury Barbosa with 15. Tyrone Manderson and Ben Tapia-Gately contributed 14 each. The quartet was responsible for 60 of the team’s 71 points.

  The Sachems kept it going by handing Winthrop a 60-55 setback on Monday at home. The scoring sheet was similar to the Danvers game. This time, three players – Manderson, Mabee and Barbosa – carried the offense, at least in terms of scoring. Manderson poured in 20 points and was aided by Barbosa’s 14 and Mabee’s 13. Just 13 Saugus points were produced by other players.

  In the wins over Danvers and Winthrop, Mabee, Manderson and Barbosa were responsible for 94 points combined.

  With Wednesday’s game being abruptly called off, Saugus hopes to be able to resume action as scheduled next Tuesday in order to preserve the positivity and energy created by the three-game win streak to kick off 2021-22.