Boys basketball: Lawrence explodes in 2nd half to dispatch Cony

AUGUSTA — His team’s lead wasn’t as big as it could’ve been entering halftime of a Capital City Hoop Classic showdown Wednesday. Jason Pellerin, though, wasn’t about to change a thing.

What seemed like a contest of which the Lawrence boys basketball team had taken firm control was just a four-point game at the break. Yet Pellerin knew the pace and flow of play was favoring his Bulldogs, and they showed it in the second half by exploding for 51 points in an 85-58 win over Cony.

“We wanted to keep doing what we were doing,” said Pellerin, Lawrence’s 11th-year head coach. “We knew if we kept contesting and not giving them second chances, good things would happen. The guys trusted each other and trusted the offense, and we took really good shots and made them.”

Lawrence’s Gavin Lunt led all players with 25 points and 10 rebounds as he bullied Cony in the paint all afternoon. The Bulldogs also got 13 points and six rebounds from Michael Hamlin, 12 points and four rebounds from Zeb Hannah, 10 points and four rebounds from Cole Quirion and six points and nine boards from Brandon Watson.

Lawrence (2-2) took a 4-0 lead to start the game before Cony scored nine of the next 12 points to gain a three-point advantage. The Bulldogs then went ahead by double digits as an and-one by Watson spurred a 14-0 run that saw Lawrence take a 21-10 lead into the second quarter.

Cony (1-4) fought back in the second quarter to stay within single digits, even cutting the deficit to 33-30 late in the first half. Lawrence, though, went on a 12-0 run to begin the second half with two baskets and a pair of free throws from Lunt and back-to-back 3-pointers from Hamlin and Dane Zawistowski.

Lawrence’s Dan Zawistowski, center, fires a pass away from Cony defenders Jordan Benedict, left, and Josh Kidd at the Capital City Hoop Classic on Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“Any time you get that type of momentum going for you that’s a really good thing, and you want to build on that, not get complacent and make sure you keep it going,” Lunt said. “We went on that run, and we knew, ‘OK, we’re up 10, but we want to keep this going and go up by even more than 10.’”

Cony prevented Lawrence from truly blowing the game open in the third quarter as it trailed just 57-44 entering the fourth, but in the final period, the Bulldogs turned it into a rout. Led by nine points from Lunt, Lawrence exploded for 28 points in the fourth quarter to leave Augusta with a lopsided victory.

For Lawrence, Lunt said, things opened up as Cony exerted its defensive resources on the sharpshooting Zawistowski. Although the Rams used relentless faceguards and even some double-teams to keep Zawistowski in check, that allowed more space for players such as Hamlin, Hannah, and, of course, Lunt himself.

“We’re thinking every game, ‘Oh, Dane’s going to go for 30, but when they’re not going to come off him, it’s basically playing four-on-four out there,” Lunt said. “We’ve got a lot of guys out there that can space the floor, so when they do that, it opens space up, and it’s easy to get downhill toward the hoop.”

Pellerin had Hamlin guard Cony’s Parker Sergent to start the game before Zawistowski switched to that role after Hamlin’s third foul. Both players defend Sergent adamantly, Pellerin said, though he still had 20 points and seven rebounds. Parker Morin added 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks for the Rams.

Lawrence’s Brandon Watson, center, is tied up by Cony defenders Josh Kidd, left, and Parker Morin at the Capital City Hoop Classic on Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Cony played a clean game offensively for much of the afternoon before turnovers mounted for the Rams in the fourth quarter. The Rams also faced significant foul trouble in the second half after Jordan Benedict picked up his fourth, after which Lawrence picked Cony’s defense apart.

“Jordan is a good player, and we need him on the court because he does good things for us offensively and defensively, so that was tough,” said Cony head coach Isaiah Brathwaite. “We’re not a very big team, so we’ve got to do a good job rebounding, and we let that get away from us there at the end.”

Indeed, Lawrence was dominant on the boards late with many of the Bulldogs’ rebounds leading to second-chance points in the fourth quarter. Lawrence finished with 35 rebounds to Cony’s 28 as the Rams brought down just 11 rebounds in the second half after notching 17 in the first.

Although Brathwaite wasn’t pleased with Cony’s shot selection, Pellerin said the shots Lawrence forced in the second half were similar to those it did in the first. The difference, though, was that the Rams’ shots stopped falling while Lawrence poured on the points at the other end.

“All we wanted to do was contest their shooters, keep them in front and not let them get by,” Pellerin said. “They got by us some, but when we forced them to take a jump shot, I felt like they weren’t making some of the shots they made in the first half, and that helped us get momentum.”