Published January 28, 2021
NORTH READING — The North Reading High boys’ basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak with an emphatic 61-38 road victory over Pentucket last Friday night.
The Hornets were led by junior captain Cody Cannalonga who had a game-high 25 points, including six 3-pointers.
Senior captains Will Taylor and Brayden Scribner each chipped in seven points while junior Quinn Riesenberg also added seven, providing a spark off the bench for the Hornets.
North Reading’s defense forced 25 turnovers in this one.
Cannalonga erupted for four 3’s in the first quarter as North Reading exploded for 25 points in the frame, getting great efforts from Scribner and Taylor as well.
“We used a suffocating full court press early to create numerous turnovers that led to easy baskets,” said NRHS head coach Joe Casey.
With a 25-11 lead, the Hornet offense stalled in the second as Pentucket cut the lead to single digits. Cannalonga, Scribner and Taylor had hoops to stop the bleeding and send the Hornets into halftime with a 33-20 lead.
North Reading’s first out-of-bounds play to start the second half resulted in a Cannalonga 3 and the rout was on as they held Pentucket to four 3rd quarter points led by strong interior defense from junior John Jennings who also had two baskets in the quarter. North Reading took a 28-point lead into the 4th and cruised from there.
The Hornets lost to Manchester-Essex 67-50 at home on Jan. 19. Sophomore Andrew Boulas had a career-high 17 and NR was up briefly in the second quarter before the visiting Hornets took control for the rest of the game.
Newburyport beat North Reading 63-48 on Jan. 15. The Clippers led by eight at the half and North Reading got the deficit down to six with a couple of chances to bring it even closer before Newburyport went on a run to close it out.
The Hornets had a tough road loss against Ipswich on Jan. 13, falling 52-49. North Reading led for most of the game, up 37-25 in the middle of the 3rd quarter and were later up seven with 2:30 to go in the game when the Tigers shut them out for the remainder of the contest to steal one.
North Reading will look to build on their Pentucket win when they travel to Amesbury this Friday at 4 p.m. They return home to play Triton on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.
