The Chelsea High boys basketball team faced Lynn Classical in an opening round matchup of the MIAA Division 2 North Sectional state tournament on Tuesday evening, playing before a large crowd at the Chelsea High gym. As the number seven seed with a 14-6 record, the Red Devils entered the contest as Commonwealth Athletic Conference champions. Classical, seeded 10th with a 13-7 record, had finished third in the North Division of the Northeastern Conference. For longtime Red Devil supporters, the matchup evoked memories of the 1979 D-2 semifinal between these same two programs, when Chelsea was led by Jay Ash and Classical featured stars including Tony Thurman. CHS head coach Jay Seigal had served as an assistant under Jack Niven during that earlier contest. Classical won that historical matchup, and Chelsea fans hoped history would not repeat itself. Yet despite a strong effort Tuesday night, the Red Devils fell short, losing 70-52. The game remained competitive throughout most of the contest, with the teams separated by just one point with two minutes remaining in the third period. Classical then mounted a run that extended into the fourth quarter, and Chelsea could not recover. Sammy Mojica paced Chelsea with 15 points, Joe Rivera contributed nine, and Felix Crespo scored six. “We played well for three quarters, but then fell apart,” said Seigal. “The boys played hard the whole way and left everything out on the floor, but in the end it wasn’t enough.” While the tournament loss provided a disappointing conclusion to the 2010-11 season, Seigal noted that it did not diminish what his team had accomplished this year. “A lot of people did not rate us highly at the beginning of the season because we had lost some key players to graduation,” said Seigal. “But we proved them wrong. We won the league title and made the tourney. It was a great year.”
CHS Boys Fall to Classical in Tourney
