I'm definitely too old for this. The second straight heart-in-your-mouth game. I tried to capture it, but, really, you had to be there. Black saved the day, but it was truly a team victory with contributions from everyone including the bench.
ARLINGTON TAKES TOURNAMENT TITLE ON BLACK’S CLUTCH JUMPER 65-63
Every kid who’s ever played basketball has had this dream, and Arlington junior co-captain Dom Black was living it Monday night.
Malden Catholic Lancers 63, Arlington 63. 10 seconds left. Black has the ball just to the left of the free throw circle, and his teammates on the bench are a chorus counting down the seconds as they tick off.
But this is where Black’s reality departs from the dream.
His back is to the basket. A Lancer could not be on him more tightly.
To make matters worse, he has picked up his dribble, and the other Lancer defenders have cut off all of his passing lanes.
He is a man with the ball with no options. Except one.
As his teammates’ countdown gets to “4” Black elevates from a standing jump, rotates in the air and releases a soft jump shot.
It seems to take forever to come down but it passes through the cylinder touching nothing but the net cords. Pandemonium.
And with that shot the Spy Ponders took home the Comcast I.A.A.B.O. Board 27 2017 Division 2 Tournament title and clinched a top seed in the state tournament after two heart stopping wins, 59 -54 in overtime over Marlborough in the semifinals on Sunday and this tour de force over the host team Malden Catholic on Monday night 65-63.
Afterwards a delighted coach John Bowler said, “We had contributions from everyone tonight. Ben Wasco took 3 charges which were huge. Colin (McNamara) had 19 points and contained their best player for 32 minutes. And Bensley Joseph (16 on 5 threes and a free throw) … as a freshman to do what he did for us was unbelievable.”
All this in addition to Black’s contribution of 18 points and the dream catcher.
For the first two and half quarters, Arlington, particularly McNamara had their way with MC’s man-to-man defense. The Lancers had no answer for McNamara’s slicing drives to the rim, and the senior co-captain’s 16 points by mid-way in the third quarter had led to a seemingly comfortable 17 point lead.
But at that point MC switched to a half-court zone trap (“a smart decision by MC coach McCune,” said Bowler), and, along with red-hot scoring from senior forward Jonah St. Clair(25) who poured in 19 points in the second half, steadily cut into Arlington’s lead until finally tying the Spy Ponders with 22 seconds left to set the scene for Black’s drama.
Bowler reflected, “We had that lead, but they’re a good team, and they made their run. We were able to keep our composure and make the big shot at the end.” He added, “This is a big time tournament and to have our name on that trophy is huge for our program. Our kids stepped up big.”
Bowler was looking for a play-off tune up challenge in this tournament and his wishes were beyond fulfilled with two tension filled wins over quality opponents.
As the only team left unbeaten in division 2, he and his Spy Ponders are, said Bowler, “ready for a few more games.”