By Jim Clark
FITCHBURG -- It's that time of the season, when teams that have already qualified for the postseason are talking about tuning up, while the others still have their eyes on getting to the playoffs.
The Fitchburg High boys' basketball team took care of business Friday night with a 75-51 win over North Middlesex at the Academy Street Brickyard, while getting ready for a tough closing stretch with Leominster, Milford, Doherty, and Holy Name.
"They're trying to push themselves to work hard, for when we play those games at the end of the year," said Fitchburg coach Doug Grutchfield. The Red Raiders (15-1) were successful, for the most part. They jumped out to a 12-pont lead in the first three minutes and after North Middlesex (8-8) stormed back, FHS was able to just as quickly pull away again and never look back.
"We were outmatched tonight," said Noth Middlesex coach Steve Dubzinski. "But we worked hard, we had a lot of character."
The Patriots just had no one to match junior Ricky Morales, who scored nine of his game-high 27 points in the opening sequence to put the Raiders ahead, 15-3. Norht Middlesex answered with a 12-0 run of its own with a couple of fast break hoops by Lucas Babbitt. Fitchburg got a bit sloppy with the ball for a spell, and a pair of free throws by Zach Bourque (14 points) made it 19-17 with 8:45 left in the half.
"We were disappointed with the turnovers. The defensive intensity was there," said senior guard Kevin Keenan.
"Six weeks ago, when they go on that run early, we don't come back, Dubzinski said. "We made a run, but we didn't sustain it."
Instead, pairs of free throws by Keith Leavitt, Jon Gauvin, and Morales sent FHS off and running. Morales and Gonzales combined for 13 points in teh final five minutes to push it to 44-25 at the half. "We put the two big guys (Gauvin and Leavitt) in there, and when we took them out we had a nine-point lead. They did a nice job," Grutchfield said.
Any North Middlesex comeback hopes were dashed by Gonzales in the first fimute-plus of the second half. An easy hoop off a Keenan drive, followed by consecutive three-point plays on offensive rebounds expanded the lead even further as Gonzles had eight of his 14 points in that quick burst. "Ray can do that at any time," Keenan said.
The lead got as high as 70-32 midway through the second half, but North Middlesex made it respectable by maintaining its intensity the rest of the way.
"I'm proud of these kids. They're not going to quit on each other." Dubzinski said.