AYER – The Ayer-Shirley Regional boys’ basketball team finished with three players in double figures on Sunday night as the Panthers had little trouble with visiting Nashoba Valley Tech. The hosts notched a 68-43 victory inside the gym at Ayer-Shirley Regional High School.
With the win the Panthers improved their season record to 4-1 while the Vikings fell to 2-3 with the loss.
Panthers head coach Rick Kilpatrick spoke with the Ayer-Shirley Tracker following Sunday’s win.
“We knew Nashoba Tech was going to come in and play a lot of zone and try to slow the game down so we wanted to try and pick the tempo up,” said Kilpatrick. “We told the guys that they (Nashoba Tech) wanted the score to be in the 40’s and we wanted it to be in the 50’s or 60’s. I thought we got off to a strong start in the first quarter.”
Panthers senior Tommy Bergin led all scorers with 20 points while classmate Bobby Manchester tossed in 16 points and Ebika Grant chipped in with 11 points to lead the winners on Sunday.
“Their zone gave us trouble but we were able to get them to commit some turnovers and open the game up in transition and I think that was the difference,” said Kilpatrick. “Bobby is really the only point guard we have and he’s really important to this team. He’s tough, he guards the other team’s best player. We have several guys that we are going to lean on this year if we’re going to be successful. Including Bobby, Tommy and Ebika.”
The hosts got off to a strong start, opening a 21-8 lead after the first eight minutes. The Panthers maintained their double-digit advantage in the second quarter and carried a 34-21 upper hand into the locker room at halftime.
In the third quarter, Ayer-Shirley began to pull away, outscoring the Vikings 17-10 in the stanza to push the advantage up to 20 points, 51-31 entering the final eight minutes of action.
Also playing well for the Panthers on Sunday evening was Kenny Lewis, Zach Iannacone and Matt Marchand.
Since opening the season with a loss to Lunenburg in the first game of the Bud Tackett Memorial Tournament, the Panthers have rattled off four straight wins. A-S has defeated St. Bernard’s Gardner, Quaboag Regional and now Nashoba Valley Tech. Ayer-Shirley will look to keep the good times rolling and make it five straight wins when it returns to the court on Friday, January 3. The Panthers travel to the Stags of Tahanto Regional in Boylston.
“We’ve experienced some injuries early in the season but I feel like we’re starting to get where we want to be as a team,” said Kilpatrick. “We have a lot of returning guys from last year but we’ve also added a few new guys to the mix and it’s made a big difference.”
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