Vikings drop season opener to Marblehead

All good things must come to an end, and so it was for the Winthrop High boys basketball team Tuesday night, who saw a two year undefeated streak in the Small Division of the Northeastern Conference reach its conclusion with a 65-58 loss to Marblehead.

“We have a lot of new players and we’ll go through some growing pains,” said WHS head coach Dave Brown. “We committed too many turnovers and gave up too much defensively, especially on the boards. But we’re learning every day and hopefully we gained some valuable experience from this one.”

Despite some early foul trouble to key players and difficulty at the free throw line (Winthrop made just four of 10 from the charity stripe, though the Vikings drained 10 three pointers on the night), fine offensive performances by Quinton Dale (18 points, 12 rebounds, six blocked shots) and Taj Generazzo (16 points) prevented Marblehead from pulling away. Whenever the Magicians got up by six or eight points, the Vikings responded with a surge to get the lead back down to two. However, Winthrop never quite was able to turn the momentum in its favor.

Still, Winthrop trailed by just three points with 40 seconds to go, but fine free throw shooting by Marblehead and a Winthrop miss on a three point attempt down the stretch sealed the Vikings’ fate.

Michael Griffin and J.P. Doherty hit for eight points apiece and Joe D’Amore chipped in with six, all in the second half.

Brown and his crew will hit the road, traveling to Swampscott Friday evening and to Danvers next Tuesday.