Alvirne boys basketball blows past Merrimack for win (video)

MERRIMACK - With two minutes to go in the first half, it looked like the Alvirne and Merrimack high school boys basketball teams were prepared to go into halftime locked in a back-and-forth battle.

But by the time the half came to an end, the Broncos had taken control.

Alvirne closed the first half with a 10-0 run under two minutes to go up by 14 points, and despite 13 3-pointers by Merrimack, the Broncos were able to come away with a 71-59 win Friday night in Division I action.

Garrett Hall had 22 points to lead Alvirne (9-5) while Angel Kangar added 15 points and Alex Bettencourt scored nine points, including the exclamation point to end the first-half run.

After Hall made a pair of free throws with 4.6 seconds to go in the half, a deflection on the inbounds pass put the ball in Bettencourt's hands in the corner. With time about to expire, the sophomore put a 3 that bounced up off the rim and went straight through as the buzzer sounded to put the Broncos up 38-24 at the break.

“I put AB (Bettencourt) in with about five seconds left (in the half),” Alvirne coach Sam Bonney-Liles said. “We  get a tip ball, he drains a 3 at the end of the half. It’s great momentum on top of how well we played in the first half. Alex has gotten a lot more comfortable playing varsity. Guys just stepped up.”

And they did so on both ends, as the Broncos forced Merrimack into 14 turnovers while spending most of the game in a 2-3 zone. While that allowed the Tomahawks (6-9) open looks from 3, it helped the Broncos hold Nate Johnson, Merrimack's leading scorer, to just two points.

“Johnson is their heart and soul and he’s a hell of a player,” Bonney-Liles said. “I thought we did a really good job. We knew (other) guys were going to hit shots, and credit to them, they did. But we were doing our job.”

Brody Towle led Merrimack with 25 points, including seven 3-pointers, while Chris Valluzzi hit three 3s for nine points and Zach Retey also scored nine, with a 3.

But once the Tomahawks fell into a deficit, they were trying to catch up all night.

“We kept turning the ball over, we weren’t rebounding, we weren’t moving to our spots,” Merrimack coach Austin Denton said. “Our defense was awful all night. We hit enough shots to win the game, we just didn’t defend. We couldn’t defend in man. We couldn’t defend in zone.”

Alvirne opened the second half with a quick run that put the Broncos up 18 points, 45-27, just 1:32 into the third. Merrimack answered with a 7-0 run that included a possession where the Tomahawks got three offensive rebounds before scoring.

But after a timeout, Alvirne went back to work on offense. Every time it looked like the Broncos were going to blow the game open, Merrimack made a 3 to stay in it, but could never get the lead into single digits.

“They shot the ball very well (Friday), but we turned them over a bunch of times,” Hall said. “We’ve got guys who can pass the ball. If we can turn them over and get down the court, great things will happen. ”