Winthrop Battles to Hard Fought Win Over Swampscott

Posted on February 5th 2012

by Jan Taylor

Joe Levesque hit two free throws in the final seconds of the game to help the Winthrop Vikings boys basketball team defeat the Swampscott Big Blue, 47-46, at Swampscott High School.

Both teams went back and forth in the first quarter of the game that was close from start to finish. Winthrop received five points from Quinton Dale and Swampscott got two points each from Mike Walsh, Dan Santanello, and Dan Trentsch in the opening quarter of play. The Vikings were ahead for most of the opening quarter but Swampscott’s Val Temin hit a 3-pointer at the end of the first to put the Big Blue ahead 9-8, at the end of the quarter.

Swampscott picked up where they left off and maintained the lead for most of the second quarter. They scored the first six points of the second when Walsh, AJ Baker and Trentsch scored two points each. Winthrop, however, took advantage of several fouls by Swampscott and scored most of their points from the free throw line. The game was tied 19-19 at halftime.

The Vikings took the lead again when Joe D’Amore scored two of his 11 points to start the second half. The Big Blue regained the lead when Baker scored two more points to put his team ahead for the rest of the third quarter. Swampscott lead 33-30 after the three quarters of play.

The Big Blue started the scoring in the fourth quarter when Temin hit two free throws to put Swampscott ahead 35-30. The Vikings then got 3-pointers from Erwin Dejesus and Jeff Laguerre and two more points from D’Amore to help them regain the lead. Both teams went back and forth until the final minute of the game.

Swampscott was ahead 46-45 when Baker scored two more points with just seconds remaining. Levesque would then get fouled and make two HUGE free throws with five seconds left in the game to put them ahead for good, 47-46

This was one of our most important wins of the season, said Dale. "Whenever Swampscott scored, we always had an answer for them. We want the league title so bad.”

The win helped the Vikings inch one step closer to winning the Northeast Conference title. The Danvers Falcons lost on Friday night so both teams are tied for first place.