FITCHBURG — The Athol boys summer basketball team plays with emotion and aggression that sometimes gets away from them. Thursday was a perfect example.
With elbows flying, intentional fouls called and its coach tossed from the game after two technical fouls after verbal arguments with one referee, Athol fell to Mahar 48-22 in Monty Tech summer basketball action.
“The fans are crazy out there and they just get in your head and with all the players trying to hurt you, it’s just wild,” said Mahar incoming senior Jordan Desrosiers. “I was concerned, but you know what, it’s a game, people are going to get heated, so you’ve just got to play.”
Mahar did just that. They removed themselves from the emotional portion of the game and outscored Athol 18-2 down the second half stretch. They out rebounded Athol 28-11 throughout the game, while Matt Lyesiuk contributed 22 points and Devin Patch 17.
“I thought that we did a very good job of not getting involved in the emotional piece of this,” said Mahar summer coach Enver Softic. “I think that we played basketball the entire evening and the score indicates that we stayed focused.”
The win came at a convenient time for Mahar, improving to 5-3 with the win and needs to win the rest of its season outright to qualify for the summer playoffs, with its final game against currently fourth-seeded North Middlesex. Athol fell to 1-7 with the loss and have been eliminated from the playoffs, falling four games out with just three left to play.
“We’ve been playing every game like it’s our last game,” said Softic. “If we don’t win, we’re out. I think our kids have responded. We had some key people that weren’t here tonight, but I think that that’s one of the things we are trying to emphasize and have emphasized at Mahar. It’s next man up, it doesn’t matter who’s not here, it matters who is here and I think we’ve done a real good job developing that.”
Mahar was without players Charlie Barnes and Eli Gonzalez, who have stepped up during the summer and should receive more playing time during the varsity season, along with Zach Notre. Athol played with five players.
With 13:37 left in the second half, Athol summer coach Dave King received a technical foul and Mahar took that and outscored Athol 16-0 following the technical, going up 48-20. Athol went more than 14 minutes without scoring a basket, which ended on a layup by Bryce King (eight points).
“We came out, we did what we had to do, won by 20 and I thought overall, we did a pretty good job of playing basketball instead of getting into the other theatrics,” said Softic.
Mahar led 28-15 at halftime and went on a 13-0 scoring run during the first half, and was Mahar up 17-5 with 11 minutes and 15 seconds left in the half. The run included two blocked shots by Patch. Lyesiuk topped off the run with a midrange jumper. It was one of several quality shots from Lyesiuk, who opened the game scoring his team’s first 13 points, including three 3-pointers. He went 7 of 8 within the first half.
Mahar concludes its week with two wins and will face Notre Dame on Monday at 6 p.m. Athol ends its week with two losses and will face Oakmont on Monday at 7 p.m.