Thursday, March 1, 2007 Older Editions

Bombs away! Andover girls start with blowout

By Rick Harrison

The Andover High girls basketball team served notice that it once again means business in the post-season - opening its MIAA Division 1 North Tournament run by overpowering visiting Salem High, 87-30, in a first-round game Tuesday night at the Dunn Gym.

With a sizable partisan crowd looking on, the Lady Warriors dismantled the undermanned Witches in a warmup for what should be a tougher quarterfinal round matchup tomorrow, Friday, at 7:30 p.m., on the road against Cambridge Rindge & Latin.

Coach Jim Tildsley's crew, whose 87 points are believed to be a team record for a tournament game, used 14 players in a futile attempt to keep it respectable. Thirteen players contributed to the scoring with three hitting double figures.

The locals scored more points in the first half than Salem managed in the game, pounding out to a prohibitive 40-12 lead.

Salem reportedly had five players on suspension for violating team, school and MIAA rules and dressed only eight girls for the game.

The lopsided romp improved Andover, seeded No. 5 in a 13-team field, to 17-4 overall this season while No. 12 Salem bowed out with a 10-11 mark.

AHS also improved to 10-0 on its home court this winter, and the locals now have a 33-game regular-season win streak at the Dunn Gym since a 59-56 overtime loss to Peabody on Dec. 23, 2003.

Andover will enter the quarterfinal versus host CR&L riding a seven-game victory skein and is 9-1 over its last 10 starts.

No. 4 seed Cambridge (also 17-4) also passed its opening tourney test with ease, routing Medford 62-35.

Cambridge and Andover met in the first round of the tourney last February, with AHS rolling to a 69-46 victory before dropping a 44-42 overtime decision to Lowell.

One thing that could be construed as giving Andover an edge against Cambridge is the comparative performances against top-seed Lowell.

AHS has played Lowell three times this season, losing close 62-61 and 51-49 decisions and beating the Red Raiders, 68-57.

Cambridge met Lowell in a mid-February non-leaguer and Lowell rolled to a 57-35 victory.

The other quarterfinal matchups have No. 8 Acton-Boxboro (15-6) at Lowell (18-2) tonight, No. 6 Central Catholic (16-5) at No. 3 Peabody (16-2) tomorrow night and No. 7 Beverly (16-5) at No. 2 Lexington (17-2) on Saturday afternoon.

If Andover and Lowell both win they will square off for the fourth time this winter in the semifinals.

Andover, 239-39 since Tildsley took over, has won three North titles in the last dozen years. The locals captured the State Division 1 crown in 2002, beating Minnechaug Regional of Wilbraham, 48-47, at the Worcester Centrum on a last-second putback by Samantha Hughes. The following year AHS advanced to the state final before dropping a 40-39 decision to Minnechaug at the FleetCenter when a potential gamewinning, buzzer-beating shot rimmed out.