AMHERST — Granby needed one rebound.
The second-seeded Rams trailed Quaboag 50-49 with 1 minute, 17 seconds left in the Western Massachusetts Division 4 boys basketball semifinals at UMass’ Curry Hicks Cage.
They played solid defense and forced Dillon Antonopoulos into an off-balance 3-pointer with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.
Dylan Perry grabbed the offensive rebound with 53 seconds remaining, and Antonopoulos hit a 3 with 26.3 seconds left to put the third-seeded Cougars up 53-49.
Granby began fouling down two possessions, but lost 57-53 on Monday.
The Cougars (10-11) will face undefeated No. 1 seed Hopkins Academy (22-0) in the championship at 12:30 p.m. at the Cage Saturday.
“We knew it was going to be a one-possession game. The offensive rebound, it was just a mistake,” Granby coach Tim Sheehan said. “You’ve got to play defense for a minute, and that makes it even more difficult.”
Granby pulled within one possession multiple times after Antonopoulos’ 3.
Zach Gorham made 1 of 2 free throws with 14.9 seconds left to make the score 53-50, and hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left to cut the Rams’ deficit to 55-53.
He finished with a team-high 16 points.
“Seems like it’s just the luck that we had. It seems as though we’d put 27 minutes together, we just couldn’t put together 32 minutes,” Sheehan said. “Tonight was as close to 32 minutes as we could get. Sometimes it’s just the way the ball rolls.”
The Rams led 49-48 after a Joe Desormier layup with 2:22 left.
That was Granby’s last lead.
Dante Ortiz gave Quaboag a 50-49 advantage on a jumper with 1:37 left.
“We have been playing games like this all season. I asked them, ‘guys, would you rather have it any other way?’” Quaboag coach Chris Reilly said.
Quaboag led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter.
The Cougars expanded a 26-23 halftime lead to 36-25 with a 10-2 run to open the third quarter.
Desormier ended it with a layup through a foul and made the free throw to bring the Rams within 36-28 with 4:10 to go in the third quarter.
Granby took its first lead of the second half with 1.6 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Anthony Gaj was fouled shooting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws to put the Rams up 41-39 to start the fourth.
Those capped Granby’s second double-digit comeback of the evening.
The Rams trailed 24-14 in the second quarter, but battled back to trail by three at the half.
“We were getting stops on defense and being a little more patient on offense,” Reilly said. “When they came back we took shots a little too quickly. When we were missing shouts they were able to get out (and run) on us, and we were in trouble.”
Ben Wisniewski briefly reclaimed the fourth quarter lead for Quaboag when he banked in a 3 with 4:30 left to go up 46-45.
“We were right in his face,” Sheehan said. “I don’t know if we could have played defense any better.”
The Rams couldn’t have taken care of the ball much better, either.
They only turned the ball over twice in the game.
“I’m astounded. I can’t believe (we lost with that few turnovers),” Sheehan said.
Granby will lose three seniors: Matt Bleakley, Gaj and Colby Forbush.
Gorham and eight other juniors will form the nucleus of a veteran team next year.
“I love the group of kids. I told them ‘there’s no sense to hang your head,’” Sheehan said. “Nobody thought anything of us. Nobody gave us a chance. We lost a 1,000-point scorer. I use that to motivate them to keep playing hard.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.
Quaboag 57, Granby 53
Cougars (10-11)
B. Antonopolous 4-3-14, D. Antonopolous 2-2-8, Mellon 1-0-2, Ortiz 4-0-8, Perry 8-0-16, Wisniewski 3-2-9. Totals: 22-7-57.
Rams (13-9)
M. Bleakley 0-2-2, N. Bleakley 0-0-0, Desormier 5-5-15, Forbush 1-2-5, Gaj 0-3-3, Gorham 6-3-16, King 2-0-6, Sosa 3-0-6. Totals: 17-15-53.
Quaboag 12 14 13 18—57
Granby 10 13 18 12—57
3-pointers: Quaboag 6 (B. Antonopolous 3, D. Antonopolous 2, Wisniewski), Granby 4 (King 2, Gorham, Desormier)