Andover rides Giribaldi, Dowden, Dunn to upset of St. John's Prep

Sports

Related Photos

Rose Raymond photo Andover's Connor Merinder takes it to the basket last night against St. John's Prep. Merinder and the Golden Warriors stunned top-seeded St. John's Prep to set up a date with Central Catholic in the Division 1 North semifinals. Rose Raymond photo
Rose Raymond photo Andover's David Giribaldi looks to make a move on St. John's Prep defender Max Burt. Giribaldi's buzzer beater at the end of regulation sent the game into overtime, and the Golden Warriors shocked the top-seeded Eagles in the Division 1 North quarterfinals. Rose Raymond photo

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. To join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address. Once you do, your comments will post automatically. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

March 2, 2013

Andover rides Giribaldi, Dowden, Dunn to upset of St. John's Prep

Giribaldi buzzer-beater sends game to overtime, Andover shocks top-seed St. John's Prep

By Chuck Frye sports@eagletribune.com The Eagle Tribune Sat Mar 02, 2013, 07:31 AM EST

DANVERS — With seven seniors on the roster, it’s only natural that a sophomore would step up to make the biggest play of Andover’s season.

But that’s what players like David Giribaldi are empowered to do.

And as a result, Andover will be taking on archrival Central Catholic in the Division 1 North semifinals, and No. 1 seed St. John’s Prep is done for the season.

With the support of the upperclassmen as well as head coach David Fazio, Giribaldi didn’t think twice about what he was going to do against St. John’s Prep’s defense, trailing by two points with seconds left in regulation.

“We didn’t run a play,” Giribaldi said of the possession that followed a huge baseline jumper from the Eagles’ Josh Syska (16 points and 16 rebounds) with seven seconds left in regulation to give the top-seeded hosts a two-point lead.

“I happened to see an opening and I drove to the basket,” Giribaldi said. “That’s what I’m good at. I didn’t even know how much time was left. I just went with my gut.”

Driving to the hoop, he sunk the layup over Syska as time expired, and after a minute-long conference between the three officials, the basket stood and the game went to overtime.

“David is one of the most fearless kids I’ve had in my 20 years of coaching,” said Fazio. “The bigger the game, the more fearless he is.”

From there, Andover’s defense took over, forcing three Prep turnovers. Sam Dowden got a traditional three-point play for the lead and Chris Dunn hit a pair of free throws to lock up the improbable upset with a 62-59 victory.

The Warriors, 16-6 and seeded eighth in Division 1 North, will face No. 4 Central Catholic (19-5) in the semifinals.

Defense made the ultimate difference as Andover effectively defended St. John’s Prep’s wing players out of the offense as Drex Costello and Ben Judson combined for just 10 points. This forced point guard Tyler Dooley (16 points) into extended periods of 1-on-1 play that affected their scoring. Combined with a rare off-night at the foul line for the hosts (17 of 31), Andover stayed close.

“Tyler’s as good of a point guard as we’ve played, and when we defended the wings closely — Drex was MVP of the Catholic Conference — the only choice he had was to try and drive by,” Fazio said.

In a game where neither team led by more than six points, Sam Dowden (19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks) took charge in the defensive paint late and turned the tide. Dunn (8 points) drained a big 3 to draw Andover even at 46 with 1:21 left in the fourth to set up Giribaldi’s late heroics.

“I just let the players go,” Fazio said of the buzzer-beating sequence. “I’ve screwed up so many plays with timeouts … (Prep) wasn’t set up on defense and they’re high school kids, just let them go and if we lose, we lose.”

“David’s the best sophomore in the MVC,” said Dunn. “With him and our tremendous seniors, that got us win.”

agateHed:Andover 62, St. John’s Prep 59

agateText:Division 1 North Quarterfinals

agateText:Andover (62):@zzAgate:agateText: Sam Dowden 7 3-3 19, David Giribaldi 4 2-2 12, Jack Konevich 2 5-9 9, Chris Dunn 1 5-8 8, Tyler Verrette 2 0-0 4, Connor Merinder 1 1-3 4, John Pisacreta 1 0-0 3, Greg Dreyfus 1 0-0 2, Max Silveira 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 17-27 62

agateText:St. John’s Prep (59):@zzAgate:agateText: Josh Syska 6 4-6 16, Tyler Dooley 4 8-15 16, Max Burt 4 0-0 10, Drex Costello 3 2-2 8, Jake Burt 1 1-2 3, Max Butterbrodt 1 1-2 3, Ben Judson 1 0-0 2, Quentin Bullen 0 1-4 1, Mike Bisson 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 17-31 59

agateText:3-pointers:@zzAgate:agateText: A — Dowden 2, Giribaldi 2, Pisacreta, Merinder, Dunn; SJP — M. Burt 2

agateText:Andover (16-6):@zzAgate:agateText: 10 12 13 13 14 — 62

agateText:St. John’s Prep (19-3):@zzAgate:agateText: 13 12 14 9 11 — 59