Whalers hang tough against North Cambridge Catholic
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITOR
Seeking to avenge last week's loss on the continent to the same school, the Whalers came out aggressively against North Cambridge Catholic at home Saturday afternoon, hoping to even the score before a home audience.

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GALVIN/The Independent Delroy Lawrence (left) demonstrates the Whaler philosophy of taking the ball to the hoop while Eric Lowell (right) gets entwined with a North Cambridge Catholic defender. Lawrence finished the game with 11 points, Lowell with 10.

Driving to the hoop consistently, and bearing down on defense, the Whalers gave the packed stands at the John J. O'Neill gym much to cheer about in the first half as they kept pace with the visitors.

Nantucket matched North Cambridge Catholic shot for shot in the first period, and when Evan Hourihan nailed a three, the Whalers trailed by only a point, 20-19, as the second quarter began.

The Whalers withstood a 9-0 second stanza run by the visitors to pull within six points, 39-33, at the 2:28 mark, thanks to a 3-pointer by Eric Lowell. From there the Whalers scored five points to NCC's two on a pair of Delroy Lawrence free throws and subsequent drive to the basket and penalty shot by Jordan Ferreira to send the crowd into delirium and close the half trailing by only three, 41-38.

The first half effort was a great turnaround for the Whalers, who had managed to score only 25 points during last week's 60-25 loss at Cambridge. Nantucket consistently battled for loose balls and sucessfully worked the ball inside against NCC's swarming double teams.

"We were rotating well and helping out on the boards," coach Beau Almodobar noted afterwards, tactics, he said, that were stressed during practice that week. Taking the ball to the hoop, he said, "is effective. I want them to work inside."

A foul shot put North Cambridge Catholic ahead by four, 42-38, to start the third period, but another Hourihan 3-pointer, followed by an Adam Spencer foul shot tied the game, to the boisterous delight of the fans. From there, however, NCC went on a 13-2 run, while its defense thwarted the Whalers and allowed just six more points in the quarter. North Cambridge Catholic outscored the Whalers, 23-12, in the period to take a comfortable, 64-50 lead entering the final stanza.

Nantucket battled back, limiting the visitors to 13 points, all of them on foul shots, but the Whalers' 16 points in the period, nine of them on three-point shots by Ferreira, Lowell and Hourihan, just weren't enough, as North Cambridge Catholic prevailed, 77- 66.

North Cambridge Catholic now sports a 6-2 record, while the Whalers stand at 3-4 on the season so far.

Still, Saturday's game was a satisfying, hard fought contest, and a good tuneup for the upcoming meat of the schedule.

"Hopefully, these kinds of games will make us better in our league," Almodobar said. "We played with a lot of intensity. The volume was up, and the atmosphere was up high.

"They really worked hard and hustled," he said of his team, "and I can't ask for more than for them to play as hard as they can and to hustle."

Despite the twin losses to North Cambridge Catholic, Almodobar said the Whalers can take what they've learned from the back-to-back contests against the tough non-league opponent and apply the lessons to the rest of the season. "We'll continue to work hard and play just as well as we played today," he said.

High-scorer for Nantucket was Ferreira with 14 points, followed by Hourihan with 13 (including three 3-pointers), Butler with 11 (eight of them in the first period), Lawrence with 11, Lowell with 10 (and two 3-pointers), Spencer with 5 and Mike Aucoin with 2.

After facing Cape Cod Academy yesterday in an away game, the Whalers play at P-town Saturday

before hosting Dennis-Yarmouth next Tuesday. I