GRANBY — When No. 7 Granby peeked across the court right before the tip-off against No. 10 David Prouty, it was like looking in a mirror.
“We’ve been saying it for the last two days – it’s like looking at the man in the mirror,” Granby head coach Dylan Dubuc said on David Prouty’s play style. “Who’s gonna make more shots?”
On Tuesday night, the answer was Granby. In front of a packed house, the Rams advanced past the Panthers in an 67-65 overtime thriller despite a heroic 40-point effort from David Prouty’s Braeden White.
Down 57-54 with just seconds left, Robert L’Abbee kicked out a rebound to senior captain Ryan Gaughan, who splashed a triple at the buzzer to force overtime. Down again 63-60 with 1:10 left, Nate Breault nailed two three-pointers with apparent ease to first tie the game and then give the Rams a one-point lead with 2.7 seconds to go. David Prouty had a couple of inbound opportunities to get a shot off, but nothing connected, and the Rams moved on to the Division 5 quarterfinals.
The Rams will play either No. 2 Baystate or No. 15 Pioneer Valley in the Elite Eight, with those teams set to meet Wednesday in Springfield for a quarterfinal ticket.
“This is the farthest we’ve been in the playoffs through my whole career. We always got a first-round bounce. So going into the Sweet 16 and winning in a buzzer-beater – the end was amazing,” Breault said. “Couldn’t have asked for a better finish.”
The final shot from Breault was the first time in his career that he’d hit a last-second game-winner.
“I played in thousands of games, coached in hundreds of games. Those two shots that were made, the one to go to overtime and then Nate’s to give us the lead late there, are two of the biggest shots I’ve ever seen in like big games,” Dubuc said.
Thought it was Gaughan and Breault who played hero for Granby, the unsung hero of the game for Dubuc and the rest of the Granby faithful was L’Abbee, whose steady play in the paint all night gave the Rams the opportunities they n eeded to stay with David Prouty.
“(L’Abbee) gets the rebound with what, two or three seconds left – there’s so many kids in high school that turn and fire that up and it’s pointless. He had the wherewithal and smarts to understand that this needs to go to the three line, and he found Ryan and Ryan squared himself and let it fly,” Dubuc said.
Both teams made significant runs throughout the game to take the lead back and forth. After a close first period that didn’t see much separation despite a fast start from the Panthers, the Rams got hot in the middle of the second. Tied at 13-13, Granby put together an 8-0 run that forced a timeout and gave them a 21-13 lead with around three minutes left in the half. Led by White, the Panthers clawed their way back into a one-point game heading into the half, hitting a buzzer beater to head to the locker room down 27-26.
Granby outscored the Panthers 10-4 to force a timeout with 3:44 left in the third, and then hit a triple for it largest lead of the game, 40-30. But like the Rams did earlier, the Panthers got hot, and went on a 10-0 run in the final 1:34 of the quarter to tie it 40-all heading into the last frame.
The first half of the fourth-quarter was another tight contest much like the first, neither team getting more than three points ahead before the other pulled within reach.