AMHERST — Kyle Murray got the look he wanted.
The Amherst Regional boys basketball team trailed Chicopee by three with 14.8 seconds remaining Monday.
Murray, the Hurricanes’ senior point guard, brought the ball up the left side of the floor. Chicopee didn’t press despite pressuring Amherst for the entire second half. Leroy Matthews met him just past the half-court line in a defensive stance. Murray dribbled once with his left hand then crossed over to his right before three dribbles that moved him closer to the 3-point line. There wasn’t much space between him and Matthews, but Murray saw a clear look at the basket, raised up and fired a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left.
“If anybody’s going to shoot that it’s going to be me,” Murray said.
The shot bounced off the left side of the rim to Tate Rietkerk for an offensive rebound. He kicked the ball out to Jaz Roman, who freed himself with one dribble to the left and let a 3 go. It popped out off the back of the rim, and Chicopee won 61-58.
“That’s all reflex, trying to create a better shot for me so I could get a good look,” Roman said.
Amherst didn’t need a 3. The Hurricanes had a timeout and could have extended the game with fouling if they made a basket.
“We were trying to get the score whatever way we could,” Amherst coach Jim Matuszko said.
Chicopee took the lead on the previous possession when Nate Thibodeau made a deep catch-and-shoot 3 after Isaiah Haines found him on the left wing. Amherst opted for a 2-3 zone at the start of the possession, and no defender covered Thibodeau. Roman was guarding Haines with the ball, and Rietkerk couldn’t flash from the post quick enough because he was guarding down low in a tied game.
“Our defender didn’t think he was going to shoot it from out there,” Matuszko said. “We kind of got stuck. We should have been in a man” defense.
Despite that breakdown, Amherst’s defense gave it an opportunity to be tied in the last minute. The Hurricanes trailed by 17 points with 5:37 left in the third quarter.
Chicopee opened the second half on an 8-2 run after leading 30-19 at halftime.
Foul trouble in the first half prevented Amherst from finding a rhythm offensively.
“The second period was a problem for us with the fouls,” Matuszko said. “Usually our reserves can keep us a little closer.”
Amherst unleashed its own press in the second half, which threw Chicopee out of sorts offensively. The Hurricanes cut their deficit to single digits during the third quarter, but Chicopee stretched it back out to 13 to start the fourth.
Murray opened the last quarter in attack mode. He demanded the ball on Amherst’s first possession and hit a 3 with 7:38 to make it 46-36.
Amherst whittled away at the lead and pulled within four on a Rietkerk fast-break layup with 1:15 left. The Hurricanes fouled Kobe Parker, who had 22 points in the game, on the next possession. He missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Murray found Roman streaking down the left side of the floor for a layup to make it a one-possession game with 1:02 left.
Amherst kept fouling, and Chicopee kept missing. Ramon Jimenez couldn’t convert either free throw in the final minute. On the Hurricanes’ next possession, Murray was fouled shooting inside the arc. He made two free throws to finish with 25 points and tie the game at 58 with 34.4 seconds left.
Amherst didn’t see the ball go through the net again after that.
“We’ll learn from this,” Murray said. “We haven’t reached our peak yet.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.