Tide gets taken down by host Attleboro in Division 1 preliminary round game

Everett boys basketball team completes season of perseverance with another determined effort

  At the beginning of any high school sports season, every player’s goal is to make the state tournament, and coach Stanley Chamblain’s Everett High School boys basketball team accomplished that this winter after nailing down a berth with a 10-10 record in the competitive Greater Boston League (GBL). They entered the tournament as the 47^thseed in Division 1.

  For their efforts, the Crimson Tide had to travel to Attleboro to take on the Blue Bombardiers (14-9), their counterparts out of the Hockomock League, in a preliminary round game on Monday night, Feb. 27, where they lost, 67-55. The home team came into the postseason as the 18^th seed, and will be facing Taunton, the 15^th seed, in a Round of 32 game on Friday night, March 3.

  The Everett boys led Attleboro early on, 5-2. Junior forward Allsin Desruisseaux scored the team’s first basket in the game on a layup. He ended up with 15 points, while teammate Steven Cordero ended up pacing the attack with 21. The senior guard netted three of those points on a layup in the paint and a free throw that specifically accounted for that early advantage. The game then basically went back and forth, and at the end of the opening stanza the Bombardiers were enjoying a slim four-point lead, 17-13.

  In the second quarter, the Blue Bombardiers lived up to their moniker nicely while opening up a 14-point lead (34-20), but then junior Cleevence Erilus scored five points in the final minute of the first half to go along with another Cordero layup to trim the deficit to just seven at the break, 34-27. All of a sudden, Everett had the momentum back, and they carried it into the beginning stages of the third quarter. Desruisseaux was credited with the first four points of the period on layups, and as a result the Tide trailed by just three, 34-31. But then it came apart quickly when Attleboro went on a 14-1 run to now lead by 16, 48-32. The Bombardiers were up by 14 after three, 51-37.

  The Tide actually outscored the home team by two in the fourth quarter, but at that time all the Bombardiers had to do was match their GBL counterparts basket for basket, which they did.

  After Cordero’s 21 points and Desruisseaux’s 15, Erilus had nine. Jomanuel Desruisseaux tallied three times. Seniors Douglas Callejas Portillo and David De Souza netted two apiece.

  Nehemiah Franco was Attleboro’s top scorer with 17 points. Michael Beverly and Hayden Crowley were next in line with 12 apiece, which completed the Bombardiers’ double-digit scorers against the Tide.

  Despite losing by 12, the continued work ethic displayed by the Tide kept Attleboro from getting too comfortable. Two large comeback efforts whittled away two sizeable deficits, and as a result the Bombardiers had to keep on working, before eventually putting it away.