State champions
Mahar derails Brighton for Division II crown, 45-41
WORCESTER — Mahar Regional School didn’t just believe defense wins championships — the Senators lived it.
For 32 grueling minutes Saturday afternoon, the Senators went toe-to-toe with a more talented Brighton High School squad and repeatedly thwarted the Bengals’ potent offense. Then Phil DiPhillipo blocked a potential game-tying 3-pointer to secure Mahar’s 45-41 victory in the MIAA State Division II Boys’ Basketball Championship at the DCU Center.
“This is so incredible, it hasn’t sunk in yet,” said senior guard Jesse LaCroix, who registered a game-high 16 points for the Senators, along with 10 rebounds and 7 assists. “There are so many emotions. This has been our dream for a long time. This is exactly the way you want to go out as a senior, winning a state title.
“After we won Western Mass., everybody said you already made history,” he added. “We took that to heart and said we don’t want to stop, we don’t want to stop. We just kept fighting in practice and kept working.”
It was the completion of a seemingly improbable run to the state title for the Senators (22-3), who before this season had never even advanced to a sectional final, let alone a state final. Add in the fact that Mahar (253 boys in grades 9-12) was not only facing an immensely talented Brighton club, but one that also draws from well over twice as many boys (637), and this contest had a little bit of a “Hoosiers” feel to it.
At least that’s the way Mahar head coach Chad Softic saw it. “I just said ‘Go Hickory, let’s get it done,’” said Softic, referring to the mythical small Indiana school from the 1986 movie. “We watched the movie the night before as a team, and we played up the underdog role as much as we could.”
DiPhillipo, who netted a dozen points and sparked the defense on numerous occasions, echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“It’s incredible, because we’re such a small school and they’re almost three times the size of us,” said the senior guard, who also totaled 4 rebounds and 3 assists. “For us to come from such a small community and win a state title is just unbelievable.”
Mahar led 33-31 at the start of the final quarter when the Bengals (21-4) quickly tied it on Jerard Mayes’ alley-oop dunk off a pass from Theo Oribharbor. It appeared at first that the play could have easily swung the momentum in Brighton’s favor.
However, Mahar’s defense never wavered, holding the Bengals scoreless for the next 3:18 as the Senators built a 39-33 lead. Darwin Duncan (7 points, 5 rebounds) hit a go-ahead runner in the lane, DiPhillipo sank a pair of free throws, and LaCroix made a highlight-reel layup as he avoided a Brighton defender while airborne.
Oribharbor’s driving layup with 4:33 left broke up the scoring drought for the Bengals, but Prince Unaegbu missed two critical free throws 24 seconds later that could have cut it to a one-possession game. DiPhillipo made two of his next four free throws and Duncan’s basket put the Senators up 43-35 with 2:09 left.
After LaCroix missed the front end of a one-and-one, sophomore guard Malik James (10 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists) hit a 12-footer in the lane and Oribharbor drained a 3-ball from the top of the key to slice the Mahar lead to three, 43-40, with 1:07 remaining.
Neither team scored until James made one of two free throws with 11.9 seconds left, then DiPhillipo (8-for-12 from the line) was fouled and he made one of two to make it 44-41.
See MAHAR Page B3
Boys’ Hoops
Mahar senior center Nate Martin pulls down a rebound in front of Brighton’s Tre Dowman Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester, where the Senators from Orange captured the school’s first basketball state title with a 45-41 Division II finals win over the eastern Massachusetts champion Bengals.
Recorder/ Mike Phillips
■ Mahar: Senators state champs
From Page B1
The Bengals got an open look at a potential tying 3pointer when Oribharbor was open at the right elbow, but DiPhillipo made a clean block and chased down the loose ball. He was then fouled with 0.6 left, sending the Senator faithful into a euphoric celebration that grew even louder after DiPhillipo’s first freebie hit nothing but net for the eventual final margin of victory.
In spite of the heart-breaking loss, Bengals head coach Hugh Coleman was incredibly gracious in defeat.
“They defended our penetration well,” he said. “All tournament long we were able to penetrate, create a little havoc inside, and it opened up the outside for us. But (Mahar) played great help defense and we weren’t able to penetrate and get easy baskets, so that definitely hurt us in many ways. Honestly, my hat’s off to Mahar, they made big plays and made some big shots.”
It was Mahar’s second state championship in school history — the first came in 1997, when the Senators volleyball team staged one of the greatest comebacks in that sport’s history to beat Medfield High School in five sets.
“It’s not going to set in for a while,” said Softic. “You think about it all summer, you daydream about it, and it’s always a lot easier when you’re thinking about it. The grinds and the battles just make it all worth it.
“I’m just so proud of my kids,” he added. “They’re gamers, and they did it the right way. They faced some adversity, and they beat a good Brighton team.”
Mahar trailed only once in the first 2½ quarters — James’ 15-foot jumper with 6:42 left in the opening quarter — before hoops from DiPhillipo, Joey Whitman and Travon Godette put the Senators up 6-2, and LaCroix’s 12-foot bank shot made it 8-2. Unaegbu was 1for-2 from the line to stop a scoring drought of 4:39, but Godette (8 points, 5 rebounds) hit back-to-back hoops helped Mahar close out the period with a 12-3 lead.
The Senators’ fan base easily doubled that of Brighton, in size as well as noise level, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Softic.
“We had an entire community — Athol and Orange — supporting us,” he said, “and they got us over the hump. That start to the game was the key. We had to be comfortable, and having all those familiar faces certainly helped.”
One player who would have normally gone unnoticed because he didn’t score Saturday was Mahar’s Nate Martin, but the 6-4 senior played a pivotal role early. He grabbed three of his six rebounds and altered several shots during the opening period, setting the defensive tone and forcing the Bengals to try and get back in the game by using their perimeter shooting. But nothing fell for Brighton early — the Bengals were 0-for-9 from behind the arc in the first half.
While Mahar’s defense was in the midst of holding Brighton without a field goal for an 8:40 stretch, it extended the lead to 17-3 after LaCroix’s traditional three-point play with 6:51 remaining before halftime.
James’ runner in the lane with 6:02 left snapped the Bengals’ drought and ignited an 11-4 run — capped off by five straight points from freshman guard Keyon Jones — to help Brighton cut the Senator advantage to seven before LaCroix’s 15-foot jumper closed out the first-half scoring with Mahar ahead, 23-14.
Brighton first used the Oribharbor-to-Mayes connection on an alley-oop dunk to open the second half, but Mahar quickly countered with a 17-foot LaCroix jumper.
Daivon Edwards and Oribharbor drained back-toback treys to trigger a 12-2 run that gave Brighton its first lead of the contest, 28-27, since the game’s opening basket, as Unaegbu scored on a putback with 3:40 to go in the third.
Through all of its turnovers and sloppy play in the early part of the third period, Mahar never looked rattled and responded in championship fashion when LaCroix nailed a 3-ball on the next possession. Brighton — which never led again — tied it once more on Oribharbor’s jumper with 2:26 left in the quarter, but Duncan’s trifecta broke the tie, and the Senators settled for a two-point lead, 33-31, entering the final eight minutes.
Mahar didn’t play its best game by any stretch — the Senators committed 21 turnovers and were frustrated at times by Brighton’s intense defensive pressure. But Mahar continued to stay resilient.
“It was just mental toughness. We could have folded, but we dug in,” Softic said. “Jesse and Darwin had big hoops in that stretch, but they gave us fits all day. We needed to control the ball a little better, but defensively we’re so stout that it allowed us to withstand those runs and get a couple hoops and hang around.”
“We knew they were going to make a run eventually (because) their shots weren’t falling,” added LaCroix. “But we knew if we could take it one possession at a time and get some stops, we had a good shot of winning.”
And making history in the process.
Mahar guard Jesse LaCroix is airborne on his way to two of a game-high 16 points Saturday during his Senators’ 45-41 state Division II championship win over Brighton at the DCU Center in Worcester.
Recorder/ Mike Phillips & Mark Durant
Josh Talbot
