AMHERST — To say Hopkins Academy has been dominant at the Curry Hicks Cage would be an understatement. Entering Saturday’s Western Massachusetts Division IV Boys’ Basketball Tournament championship game, the top-seeded Golden Hawks were a perfect 7-0 on the UMass campus in the past four seasons, winning three consecutive WMass titles over that span. The team won those seven games by an average margin of 17 points, with just one contest finishing within single digits.
Simply put, Hopkins was a prohibitive favorite to take home a fourth straight sectional title.
The problem was that nobody told Pioneer Valley Regional School that it wasn’t supposed to win.
The upstart third-seeded Panthers put the three-time defending champs on their heels from midway through the first quarter on, weathered a fourth-quarter storm, and got another gutsy performance late from junior point guard Garrett Cote. The buzzer-beating hero from the semifinal win over Drury High School, Cote scored 10 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter Saturday, lifting Pioneer to a 59-53 win that gave the Northfield bunch their first WMass title since 2000.
Pioneer (18-5) advanced to the MIAA Division IV Tournament, where it will play defending state champion Maynard High School (21-3), the central Mass. champ, in a state semifinal tonight at 7:30 p.m. at American International College in Springfield.
“Our whole team, we’re not afraid of the big stage,” offered Cote, who hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to kickstart a stagnant offense that badly needed it. “First time (at the Cage) for all of us and we didn’t take it for granted. We didn’t just want to get here, we wanted to win the whole thing.”
Buoyed by a late-season stretch, Pioneer entered its two games at the Cage with a quiet confidence. First came the semifinal win over Drury, a team the Panthers had lost to by 30 points in December, on Cote’s buzzer-beater. The task only grew against a Hopkins squad that could basically establish seasonal residency at the Cage with its recent success in March.
“Let’s face it, Hopkins has been the class of the division,” Pioneer head coach Scott Thayer began. “To be the king, you’ve got to beat the king. We were ready for this. We played as hard as we could. We made the plays when we had to. I’m proud of everyone. Everybody chipped in and did something for us.”
Despite taking a 10-9 lead with 2 minutes, 31 seconds left in the first quarter and holding that advantage into the fourth quarter, Pioneer knew it was only a matter of time before Hopkins (20-3) came storming back. So when the Hawks opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to take a 46-45 lead with 3:27 remaining on a layup by Caleb Graves, the Panthers didn’t panic.
Yes, it’s true they hadn’t scored a point in the first 5:15 of the fourth frame; and yes indeed, all the momentum was with the program that has made its living winning big postseason games. But there was no panic.
Cote, the unassuming leader who didn’t score a first-half point, was prepared to take over.
“I noticed we were struggling pretty much the whole second half to get good looks,” he explained. “So, the first open look, I’m going to take it. There was a lot of smack being talked, ‘I can’t shoot, I can’t shoot.’ I kind of took that personally.”
With a hand in his face, Cote put the Panthers back on top for good. His long-distance 3 with 2:45 remaining put Pioneer on top, 48-46. Next time down the floor, he pulled up from the exact same spot and connected again.
After a Hopkins free throw, Cote sent the Pioneer faithful into a euphoric frenzy on the team’s next offensive possession. From a step further back, he sank his third 3-pointer in a span of just 86 seconds. The crowd rose to its feet and bedlam ensued, with the Panthers taking a 54-47 advantage with just 1:19 to go.
“I needed to step up for my team and I did. I made three big shots,” Cote said. “It’s such a great feeling right now.”
To see his point guard turn into an elite closer before his very eyes, Thayer said Cote’s patience and fortitude on Saturday was as impressive as his late-game heroics.
“I know he was getting a little frustrated because they were hounding him all game long defensively and weren’t going to give him the looks that Drury did,” the Pioneer coach said of Cote. “And so, I told him, ‘Just stay in there and do what you need to do to help us. Handle the pressure because there’s going to come a time in the fourth quarter where you’re gonna step up and you’re gonna lead us home.’ Those were big shots by a big-time player.”
Hopkins closed to within four, 57-53, with 33 seconds left after a Justin Ciaglo 3-pointer. But the Hawks got no closer. Karl Wheeler hit two from the charity stripe to seal the deal and Pioneer ended Hopkins’ reign of Division IV supremacy.
“In the fourth quarter, I knew it was going to be tight but I just thought the pressure switched,” said Thayer. “I thought (Hopkins was) playing a little tighter. I thought Drury did the same thing, where they were looking up at the clock and saying, ‘Why aren’t we up?’ Pressure, kids react to it differently. We’ve been in these types of games all year. That certainly helped.”
Pioneer used a late flurry in the first quarter to settle the nerves, as Brendan Emond and Wheeler hit back-to-back hoops to give the Panthers a 12-9 advantage.
The squad closed the opening stanza on a 10-0 run, including tough buckets from seniors Jordan Loughman and Justin Hubbard to stake Pioneer to an 18-9 advantage after a quarter.
With Hopkins big man Jonathan Morrison saddled with two early fouls, the Hawks struggled to control the paint in the first half. Loughman and Emond got good offensive looks as a result, while Mike Menard also managed to slash to the hoop for a second-quarter basket. The lead grew to 29-19 after a Troy Emond free throw, but Hopkins scored the final four points of the half to pull within six, 29-23, at intermission.
Pioneer went up 36-25 midway through the third quarter after back-to-back hoops from Loughman, but Hopkins responded as the entire arena knew it would. Morrison went on a personal 7-0 run for the Hawks, and his layup with 2:44 remaining pulled the defending champs within two, 38-36.
But in keeping with the game’s theme, the Panthers had an answer. Cote hit a layup with 1:17 left and Hubbard sank a jumper, setting the stage for a big momentum-shifter at the third-quarter buzzer. Hopkins senior John Earle stole the ball in his own end and tried to throw up a three-quarter-court shot. Earle was whistled for traveling, however, and Pioneer got the ball back with 1.5 seconds left. The Panthers made Hopkins pay, as Wheeler broke open for a 3-pointer that swished in as the buzzer sounded to give his side a 45-38 lead entering the fourth.
Hopkins’ 8-0 run to start the fourth had the Hawks confident they were on the path to a fourth consecutive sectional title, but Pioneer’s resilience kicked in late thanks in large part to Cote. The Hawks could never get comfortable, finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, trailing late.
“I told the guys, ‘They’re going to try and come back and punch you in the mouth hard out of halftime,’” Thayer said of Hopkins. “We withstood that. I know they ended up taking the lead (in the fourth quarter), but they didn’t have one of those patented 12-3, 15-1 runs that they’re known for. We maintained contact with them and that was the key to making sure they didn’t have that big spurt.”
Cote’s 14 points led a balanced offensive performance for Pioneer, as four players scored in double figures. Loughman had an impressive night, finishing with 12 points, while Wheeler and Emond each tossed in 11 points. Menard added 5 points.
Morrison’s big second half enabled him to lead all scorers with 24 points. Earle notched 13 points and Ciaglo was close behind with 9 points for the Hawks.