Pelham boys basketball uses defense, outside shooting to blow past Hollis Brookline (video)

HOLLIS - The Pelham High School boys basketball team found another gear late in the first quarter of Tuesday night's game against Hollis Brookline, and it started on the defensive side of the ball.

Up three points with three minutes left in the quarter, the Pythons forced seven turnovers in the next five minutes, outscoring the Cavaliers 22-0 during that stretch on the way to an 80-36 win in a Division II contest.

Jake McGlinchey finished with a game-high 20 points to lead Pelham (20-0), with seven coming during his team's big first-half run, and Zach James added 12 points, hitting three of his four 3-pointers early in the second quarter. As a team, the Pythons hit 11 3s and forced 24 turnovers on the night.

"We are led by our defense," Pelham coach Mike Larson said. "We practice it every single day. Full-court, man-to-man, if you’re not coming off the floor soaked in sweat, you’re not doing it right. We thought we could get up and pressure them into some turnovers. Once we get going, it just snowballs. We have a couple of good 3-point shooters, which is good for floor spacing."

Dom Herrling was also in double figures for Pelham with 11 points and Aiden Hegan and Alex Carroll each hit two 3-pointers, as all 12 players scored.

"That’s a great basketball team," HB coach Marty Edwards said. "They’re well-coached. We’re still figuring out who we are and what we can do. I was proud of how we played hard (in the second half), but when they’re shooting like that, and they’re playing like that, what can you do. It gives us something to build on."

The Cavs (0-2) got eight points each from John Kotelly and Aidan Dufoe, who hit two 3s, while Kaleb Popham also had two 3s for his six points. HB hit six 3s as a team and did some nice work on the offensive glass in the first quarter to stay in the game.

Pelham took a 12-4 lead early, but after a timeout, HB was able to make it a three-point game, 14-11, following putbacks by Kotelly and Jayce Cora (four points) and a 3 by Dufoe.

Jake Travis and Russ Hamel each made a free throw for the Pythons to put them up 16-11, and with about 90 seconds left in the quarter, Pelham turned up the defense. The Pythons had four steals in that closing stretch of the quarter, leading to seven straight points for a 23-11 lead after one.

Three 3s from James and a basket by McGlinchey continued the run into the second quarter to give Pelham a 36-11 lead with 5:45 to go in the quarter and the Pythons went into the half up 50-21.

"I think we have to get used to the fact that you can’t take any plays off," Edwards said. "Momentum changes so fast. It could be one or two plays and all of a sudden, momentum is going the other way. We’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal and we have to have continuous energy to keep making plays."

The Cavs were able to slow Pelham down early in the third quarter, outscoring the Pythons 6-4 to get the lead down to 19 points. But Pelham ended the third on a 10-3 run to put the game into running time early in the fourth.

"We play hard and we’ve got a good group of kids who have all bought in and are playing well together," Lawson said. "I play all 12 guys. We’ve been fortunate we had a couple of games that were easier to do that in, but I have confidence in all 12 games to go in at any point in the game."