Burlington beats Lexington 74-66 on senior night

The Burlington high school boy’s basketball team put an end to their recent three game skid on senior night beating Lexington 74-66.  The win will go a long way to help with the team’s confidence as they now gear up to make a deep postseason run. 

After the game coach Tom Lyons couldn’t stop giving his team credit.  “This was a huge win, we have been struggling the last few weeks and we played the best 32 minutes of the season.  All the credit goes to the kids on that team.”

Burlington started the game by switching up the lineup and starting all of his seniors in their final regular season game.  This lineup change immediately worked out as little used senior forward Steve Xu made the most of the opportunity connecting on two three pointers and was the teams leading scorer in the first quarter.  Lexington got a boost when they brought highflying junior Chris Lee off the bench who provided the offense with a spark. 

After a low scoring first quarter, shots started falling in the second.  For Burlington that meant that Ryan Putney got on track and Mark Melanson found his stroke from outside.  The whole team also played outstanding defense.  Lexington hoped to use their size by driving to the hoop and thought they would be able to score as Burlington did not really have any shot blockers inside.  The Burlington team showed what type of heart though by continually stepping in and taking charges from their much bigger opponents.  This frustrated Lexington and made it tough for them to get going. 

Burlington took a 34-27 lead at the half with Melanson leading the way with 13 points and Putney with 11.  Melanson did most of his scoring from outside connecting on four three pointers. 

The third quarter proved to be a back and forth battle with Lexington finally getting some buckets inside.  A monster dunk by Matt Sharma really got Lexington going emotionally but just as they have all season Burlington battled back and hit shots of their own to put a stop to the momentum.  Lexington cut the lead to 53-48 going into the fourth quarter and seemed to be within striking distance.

The teams traded buckets in the fourth quarter until Greg Sheridan hit a three pointer with two minutes to play to give them a 10 point lead which secured the win.  Putney finished as the games high scorer with 28 points followed closely behind by Melanson who had 22 points, 21 of them coming from beyond the arc as he hit seven three pointers. 

Before the game the team had a ceremony honoring the team’s four seniors, Xu, Putney David Whitney and Zach Hurynowicz.  Lyons had nothing but good things to say about his senior class specifically captain Ryan Putney.  “He has been phenomenal all year and this was his best performance of the season.” Lyons said.  “He has been our most solid and consistent player. 

Burlington now must wait to find out who they will draw in the state tournament which is set to begin in about a week.