LYNNFIELD —  The boys basketball team got off to a slow start Monday afternoon against visiting Tewksbury, but stepped it up over the last three quarters to close out the season with a 60-47 victory and finish the regular season 15-5.

It was no easy task however. The Pioneers twice got the lead up to 14 early in the fourth quarter, the first after an Alex Fleming (14 points)  layup that made it 46-32 and the second, after a coast-to-coast layup by Harris Hadzihasanovic (14 points) that made it 48-34. But a couple of consecutive turnovers on inbounds plays that ended in easy layups allowed Tewksbury to cut the deficit down to 10 on two occasions, the last one at 48-38 with a little more than five minutes to go in regulation. Big buckets by Hadzihasanovic, Fleming, and senior captain Chris Daniels (game-high 18 points) and free throws by Daniels and senior captain Iain McCarthy (3 points) restored the lead to 14, 59-45, with about a minute and a half left to seal the win.

“The kids just made a couple of mental errors there, but for the 30 minutes, they made the right play, they made some big shots. It was a total team effort and I’m really proud of them,” head coach John Bakopolus said. “The game was a weird spot with a 1 o’clock start but both teams kind of settled in and we just hit some shots, which was huge.

“We knew that as a Merrimack Valley Conference team, they play an incredibly tough schedule and are talented and well coached so we are totally happy to come out with a win. This was a big test for us and I’m happy the kids responded well.”

Truth be told, both teams struggled to find their rhythm in the opening quarter, which ended with Tewksbury on top, 11-9. 

In the second quarter, Lynnfield led 14-13 with about five minutes to play after Zach Pincus (11 points) threaded the needle in the lane to Fleming for an uncontested layup. After Tewksbury big man Luke Montejo cut the lead to one with a layup, the Pioneers went on a 10-0 run to lead by  11, 24-13 with less than two minutes to play in the half. Daniels and Pincus (3-pointers), Fleming and Daniels again on a rim-topping layup hit key shots for the Pioneers.

Tewksbury got the deficit down to seven, 24-17 with a few seconds to go, but a buzzer-beating trey from Pincus sent the Pioneers into halftime with a 27-17 lead. 

Lynnfield bumped the lead to 41-28 after three, then took its largest lead of the game at 44-28 after Daniels drained another three to start the fourth, but every time it looked like Tewksbury was onto a comeback, Lynnfield hit key shots to keep the Redmen at bay.

McCarthy said that while Tewksbury’s full-court press posed a challenge, the Pioneers nonetheless did what they needed to do to prevail against “a good team.

“That’s a MVC team so this is a great win for us,”  McCarthy said. “Obviously, they made their runs a little bit at times and tried to punch our poise with their full-court press, but 60 points is good offense. Our defense was good. We have a lot of leadership on this team with Chris and Al. 15-5 is a really good season.”

Daniels said the Pioneers’ “calling card” all year long has been defense.

“Like Iain said, we play good defense and that’s what we really rely on. I feel like when we get the ball downhill and move it, we found our shots pretty well and we ended up scoring a lot in that fourth quarter,” Daniels said. “It ended up working well for us.”

Fleming, a junior, also agreed with McCarthy and added that, down the stretch in the fourth quarter, the Pioneers’ patience paid off.

“It was a tough game. They really pressured us offensively so we just decided to move the ball around a little more,” junior Alex Fleming said. “Instead of just shooting after one or two passes, we moved it around until we got an opening. I think we tired them out and that opened up the shots for us. We talked about it a lot at halftime and during the timeouts because we just wanted to slow it down and keep a good lead so that’s what we did to play at our pace.”

The Pioneers are ranked No. 29 in the MIAA Division 3 power rankings. The top 32 teams qualify for the tournament. The brackets are set to be released on Saturday.

“It’s all very fluid right now and obviously we are hoping for the best but nobody knows,” Bakapolus said. “I honestly have no idea where we’re going to land.”