The streaking Danvers High boys basketball team welcomed junior standout Devonn Allen back into the lineup after a two-game layoff with an explosive three-point performance in the opening quarter en route to a 65-31 rout of Revere in the DHS field house Friday night.
The Falcons, 11-3 and now riding a six-game win streak, scored their first 15 points on three-pointers, keyed by Tre Crittendown’s trio of treys as part of a 5-7 long-range skein and the game was pretty much over then and there. The Falcons, now 8-0 at home awaiting a showdown here with Lynn English Tuesday, led by 15-2 at the time and widened their cushion the rest of the way.
The Falcons’ feared man-to-man, nose-to-nose defense never gave Revere a chance to get started. Revere had two points after the first 3:30, was shut out the first 5:33 of the second quarter and did not score until 4:40 had passed in the third.
In enjoying a second straight solid three-point night, a critical part of their offense, the Falcons hit eight of their first 14 launches from behind the arc and finished 15-for-31, led by Crittendon’s four, Rashad Francois’s three and two each from Mike Nestor, Justin Roberto and Sean Rooney.
Five Falcons had eight points or more, starting with the left-handed shooting Crittendon (14) and followed by Francois’s 11 and each each from Nestor, Roberto and Rooney.
Allen, after taking two games off to nurse a sore shoulder, was understandably rusty in his return, hitting one of three three-point attempts and finishing with five points. His floor game was so-so, much below his typically high-level play.
He’ll need to be at his best Tuesday when Lynn English comes to town. English edged Danvers by two points in their first meeting in Lynn, where the Falcons blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead and Allen fouled out halfway through the quarter.
It may be up to the Falcons’s always reliable man-to-man defense (30 Revere turnovers to Danvers’13) and rejuvenated three-point consistency to turn back English and put them in position to move into first place in the Northeastern Conference Large division with another win at Lynn Classical on Monday February 8. The Falcons need to win out in the NEC, including wins at Peabody and Beverly to have a shot at a fifth consecutive NEC title. Salem is destined to win the overall NEC title which Danvers has won an unprecedented four straight years.
Classical has one loss in the NEC, English and Danvers two each with four NEC games remaining.
DHS junior Nina Perel did another superb job singing the national anthem before the tap.
Back-up big man Isaiah Clark had a rough go of it, getting whistled for four fouls and not scoring during his second half stint. I have to believe coach John Walsh is bringing the all-star football lineman along slowly, hoping he’ll be polished enough to make a positive contribution come the two final regular season games in the Holliston Invitational before the defending Division 2 state champs begin their title defense.