MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Tuesday night, snow fell outside Manchester Memorial High School and a Crimson Tide slowly began to crest inside of it. Fortunately for Memorial, that Tide came up just short of washing away a victory.
Crimson Tide of Concord returned to New Hampshire’s capital with a 45-43 boys’ basketball loss against Memorial in spite of a late comeback that saw Concord almost double the Crusaders’ scoring in the fourth quarter.
From Memorial junior Troy Jutras’ opening field goal, the Crusaders never trailed, but they found themselves neck and neck with the visitors for the majority of the contest, finishing the first quarter with a 13-12 advantage.
Memorial held a 30-21 advantage at the half, with their lead hitting a peak of 11 points after junior Cameron Pollock’s score a minute before the break. Concord junior Ivan Yen opened the second half with a pair of baskets, beginning an 8-2 run over the next 3:20 that would put the Tide down by just 37-30 heading into the final frame.
Concord seemed poised to take the lead with just two minutes left in the contest as Yen transformed an offensive rebound into a score, putting the Tide down by just one. Fortunately for the Crusaders, one late bucket from Pollock and a combined four points from the line from juniors Anthony Roumaj and Brennan Beland in game’s last 95 seconds gave Memorial just enough to hold on for the victory.
Roumaj had a trio of threes in his 11-point evening for the Crusaders, enough to lead his squad in scoring, followed by junior Tyler Lavalle’s 10 points on the night. The Crusaders’ victory also came in large part to senior Deng Luwal’s eight rebounds and four blocks.
Concord junior Anthony Brock led all scorers with 21 points, with Yen contributing 19. Senior Nathan Bengtson (two points), junior Gumee Mbata Aboro (two points) and sophomore Ammishaddai Fleurant (one point) provided the rest of Concord’s scoring with everyone on the team other than Brock and Yen going 2-for-18 from the field.
Concord (2-2) and Memorial (3-1) will switch venues in a Friday rematch set for 5:45 p.m.