DANVERS — Beverly began its calendar year with an 80-36 victory over Northeastern Conference rival Danvers.

Beverly (5-1) entered its matchup with Danvers (4-3) Monday night looking to bounce back from a loss to Central Catholic in the championship game of the Commonwealth Motors Classic.

“We had a really tough tournament; we put together some good practices,” Beverly head coach Matt Karakoudas said. “The kids had a really good attitude coming off of that loss.”

Senior guard Jacob Klass entered the game needing 31 points to eclipse 1,000 career points. The Falcons defense well aware of Klass’s potential milestone were determined to not have Klass reach 1,000 on their homecourt.

With the defensive attention drawn to Klass throughout the night, the rest of the Panthers capitalized on their opportunities, including senior guard Domenic Panniello, who finished with 12 points, and Danny Pierce, who added 14 points took some of the scoring load off of Klass.

“They’re huge for us, they can do a little bit of everything,” Karakoudas said. “They can score, they can rebound, they facilitate, they can run the floor and they have high basketball IQ.”

After Danvers scored the first points of the game on a made three, the Panthers rattled off an 11-0 run that forced the Falcons to call an early timeout.

The Panthers offense built a 20-point lead early in the first half and took a 40-16 lead at the half. Klass, who scored 11 of his 19 points in the first half, created easy scoring opportunities for his teammates.

Karakoudas credited his team for their unselfishness, especially his star player who let the offense come to him and opened the floor for his teammates with the attention he drew the entire night.

“We have so many good players that it’s really hard to just focus on Jacob,” Karakoudas said. “Jacob’s the type of guy who can play an average offensive game. He still gets 18 to 20 points; he’s just a good scorer.”

Klass will have another chance to reach 1,000 points when the Panthers host rival Salem on Friday night.

“He’s close to 1,000 and he wasn’t pressing at all tonight to try to make it happen because he knows it’s going to come,” Karakoudas said.