Bartlett holds off hard-charging Bellingham

WORCESTER — For as sensational of a comeback bid No. 3 Bellingham put forth Monday night at WPI to nearly wipe away a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter of a Div. 3 Central semifinal, a little too much juice on a heavily-contested, game-tying 3-point attempt in the final seconds kept it just short of moving past No. 2 Bartlett.

Twice the Blackhawks (17-6) pulled within one point in the final frame against the sharp-shooting Indians (20-2) behind energetic defense and timely offensive execution, but clutch free-throw shooting from Brandon Boucher (19 points, four assists) and big 3-pointers from Dylan Grandmaison (15 points, two steals) and Wilson Aybar (15 points) helped Bartlett to a 77-75 win.

Shooting proved to be the difference all second half for the Indians outside of the final defensive sequence, shooting 7-for-10 from deep since the break. All eight of Boucher’s free throws on the night even came in the final 1:27 of the contest as well, proving enough despite Bellingham’s 20-13 scoring advantage since the 6:50 mark of the fourth.

With the win, the Indians move to the section final to take on the winner of Whitinsville Christian-Sutton on Saturday for their third appearance in the last five years.

“Credit to those guys (in Bellingham), they’re good players, we just had the perseverance at the end,” said Bartlett head coach Anthony Paranto. “(Good shooting) is our style. We don’t have the prototypical basketball player. … We have a lot of shooters on our team. It’s hard to isolate on one individual, that’s our style, we’re running and gunning.”

Following a back-and-forth first half, the Indians came out of the half scorching hot from deep as Boucher nailed three 3-pointers in the third quarter, and accurate mid-range shots from Logan Paranto (19 points) built up a 61-51 lead with 6:50 left in the game.

But Bellingham had no quit.

A combination of Tate Pike, Chris Domercant and Tyler Warren used high energy to execute on both ends of the floor. Pike (game-high 31 points, six steals) produced a steal and layup, and hit one of his five treys with 4:04 to go to cap a 9-0 run to pull within one point.

A timeout from the Indians helped them reset, allowing Aybar to hit a corner 3-pointer and start a 9-2 run to extend the lead to 70-62 with 1:27 left. A seven-point lead a little later didn’t mean much, though, as Domercant (11 points, three steals) converted a layup, and Pike hit a fading three before stealing an inbound pass to generate a layup for a 73-71 deficit with 38 seconds left.

Yet, the free-throw game continued for Bartlett, and even after Michael Gamble nailed a trey with 13 seconds left to bring Bellingham within one point again, Indians free throws and a long 3-point try with five ticks to go from a fading Bradley Chausse in the corner ultimately sealed the game.

“Great high school basketball game. Couldn’t be more proud of my kids’ effort, they didn’t quit,” said Bellingham head coach T.J. Chiappone. “There’s no (quit) in these guys, very resilient, and they made me very proud of them. I was proud of the way we executed at the end of the game … I have to give (Bartlett) a lot of credit, they shot the ball lights out.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/38gFHp6