By Kyle Auger
Staff Writer

Westford Academy suffered a heartbreaking loss Sunday to the Lawrence Lancers by a final score of 81 to 80.

The early part of the game was completely dominated by Lawrence. The Lancers led the Ghosts by 11 points at halftime, however the tides turned when guard Ryan Jann hit a last second jump shot to end the half.

The Ghosts fought back valiantly in the 3rd quarter shaving the once double digit lead to just four points. Although the Westford offense was on a roll, the Lancers still kept their offense sharp, including numerous threes by senior guards Jaylan Alicia and Yadoris Arias who combined for more than fifty points.

In the fourth quarter the Ghosts started taking charge on both sides of the ball. The Westford deficit bounced around two to three points for the whole quarter until there was about two and a half minutes remaining.

After a Westford jumpshot late in the fourth, Lawrence mounted a counterattack. However, point guard Alicia got stuck in the Ghosts’ full court trap and Alicia eventually stepped on the sideline. Taking advantage of the turnover, Westford attacked the hoop and after a missed layup, senior captain Mark Cornelius tipped the miss back in.

Lawrence began to play flustered and they called a quick time out, the capacity crowd at Westford Academy became raucous, however the Lancer’s fans were equally as rowdy.

Trying to cement the win Arias took the ball past half court to set up the offense and he pulled up and attempted an extremely deep three point shot and drew a late foul. On the line, senior Arias made all three free throws despite the intense pressure.

After his show of fortitude, Westford Academy only led by one point. Anxious to answer, a hasty shot by the Ghosts led to a Lawrence counter attack. This possession ended with a circus shot falling out of bounds by guard Arias that left Westford Academy with heavy hearts and 5.6 seconds to work with trailing by one point.

Directly off the inbound pass junior guard Matt Ellis missed a heavily contested running layup and in the chaos, two more shots were attempted, however, none fell. As the hundreds of Westford fans looked on in horror, the Lawrence section crowded the floor in a wild celebration.

Although it is the end of Westford Academy’s season, the game was thrilling, and various Westford players displayed their talent and potential.

Top performers for Westford Academy were Mark Cornelius with 33 points and Ryan Imbriaccio with 13. On the Lawrence side Jaylan Alicia had an impressive 38 points and Yadoris Arias had 14 points and the game winning lay-up.