AMHERST – Zach Crisafulli ran past the half-court line at the Curry Hicks Cage waving his arms.
The Easthampton junior found a pocket of space on the right wing and squared to the basket with four seconds on the game clock.
Easthampton needed a 3-pointer to send the Western Massachusetts Division 3 boys basketball championship game to overtime.
Johnny Bara whipped him a pass from the free-throw line.
Crisafulli let it fly, but Hoosac Valley’s Matthew Koperniak closed out to block the shot up in the air.
“I don’t know why I even left the kid in the first place,” Koperniak said. “I saw the pass go over, and I went as fast as I could, jumped up in the air.”
The rebound fell right back to Crisafulli, who took a second attempt to tie the game with 2 seconds on the clock , but Mathew Carlow slid over to defend.
It fell to the ground just left of the basket with all zeroes on the clock and a red light in the backboard.
Hoosac Valley celebrated a second consecutive Western Mass. title after beating Easthampton 54-51 on Saturday.
“We knew we needed a 3. We got a 3. Koperniak’s a long kid, he’s a good defender,” Crisafulli said. “I had to throw it up, there wasn’t a lot of time left.”
Easthampton (20-3) originally inbounded the ball with 8.9 seconds left.
Hoosac Valley’s Jameson Coughlan had just made two free throws to extend the Hurricanes’ lead to three, altering the types of shots available to the Eagles.
“It was an open 3 until (Koperniak) came out of nowhere. He did a good job of closing out,” Easthampton coach Brian Miller said. “I think it was a pretty good look for us. Given 8 seconds and the full length of the court to go, I would live with Zach taking that shot, for sure.”
Crisafulli, who scored nine points, featured heavily into the game’s final stages.
He gave Easthampton a 51-50 lead with a 3 with 1:10 left, but missed two free throws with 33.7 seconds left and Easthampton trailing 52-51.
He went 4 of 11 from the line, while the Eagles were 10 of 18 overall.
“Couldn’t shoot free throws tonight,” Crisafulli said.
Hoosac Valley rebounded the second miss with 33.7 seconds left then turned the ball back over to Easthampton.
The ball found Crisafulli again, who missed a jump shot that Coughlan rebounded.
Shy Torres fouled him on the catch to send Coughlan to the line with 15.5 seconds left and send himself to the bench with five fouls.
Coughlan missed the front end of the one-and-one, and Easthampton called timeout with 14.6 seconds remaining.
The Eagles put the ball in freshman Ish Akanour’s hands.
He attacked the paint and ran into Coughlan, who drew a charge to set up his final two free throws.
Coughlan finished with a game-high 18 points and anchored Hoosac’s advantage inside.
The Hurricanes listed five players taller than 6 feet on their roster. Easthampton had two, Crisafulli and Liam Healy.
“We wanted to get out and pressure the ball. We didn’t do a great job of that until the last couple minutes,” Miller said. “We knew that if we could get big pressure on the ball they wouldn’t be able to look inside.”
Most of the task of defending Hoosac’s bigs fell to Hunter Leveille, a 5-11 football player who appeared comfortable in the trenches along the baseline.
He led Easthampton with 14 points primarily scored inside, but he did hit jump shots from the soft spots in Hoosac’s zone when the Hurricanes sagged off him to deal with moving guards.
“Even though he’s small, he’s a pretty strong kid,” Miller said. “He was battling and using his quickness to tie up Coughlan.”
Easthampton’s pressure started to wear Hoosac down more in the second half.
The Hurricanes turned the ball over up 50-48 with 2:11 left, and Torres forced a jump ball by diving for a steal with 1:35 remaining.
Hoosac Valley retained possession, but Easthampton forced a five-second call when they tried to inbound to set up Crisafulli’s eventual go-ahead 3.
“They’re a quick team. We’re not really used to that pace,” Koperniak said.
Hoosac built a seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter by controlling the pace and feeding its big men.
The Hurricanes’ 49-42 advantage with four minutes remaining was the second half’s largest.
Easthampton turned up its pressure after that.
Leveille cut the deficit to 49-45 with a free throw with 3:11 left then brought Easthampton to 50-48 after finishing a three-point play after an offensive board with 2:48 to go.
“We did what we had to do, what we always did. Pressure, runouts and fast breaks, not letting them get into their defense,” Easthampton senior Raphie Coleman said.
He pushed the ball for the Eagles whenever he could, scoring 13 points and breaking Hoosac’s defense down off the dribble.
Coleman played his final game for Easthampton along with Torres, Healy and Leveille.
“We knew what we had to do, but it didn’t come out like that,” Coleman said.
Hoosac Valley 54, Easthampton 51
Hurricanes (15-9)
Hall 5-0-12, Rousseau 1-0-2, Carlow 2-1-5, Koperniak 5-1-13, Sistrunk 0-1-1, Barrow 1-0-2, Coughlan 7-4-18. Totals: 21-7-54.
Eagles (20-3)
Pek 0-2-2, Coleman 5-0-13, Crisafulli 2-4-9, Barow 0-0-0, Torres 0-0-0, Jenkins 0-0-0, Akanour 3-0-6, Healy 2-2-7, Leveille 6-2-14. Totals. 18-10-51.
|
Hoosac Valley |
15 |
11 |
11 |
17 |
— |
54 |
|
Easthampton |
8 |
18 |
11 |
14 |
— |
51
|
3-Pointers: Hoosac Valley 4 (Hall 2, Koperniak 2), Easthampton 5 (COleman 3, Crisafulli, Healy)