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There were supposed to be no secrets between Walpole and Catholic Memorial entering last night’s Division 2 South boys basketball semifinal. Having come to Walpole from the West Roxbury school after serving as an assistant for the previous eight years, Rebel coach Dave St. Martin knew the bulk of the players that lined up against his squad and certainly knew the Knights coaching staff.
Entering the game, the fear for the Rebels was succumbing to CM’s fullcourt pressure, but believing that they could control the boards and limit the Knights to one look while getting multiple looks at the offensive end.
The contest couldn’t have turned out to be more opposite as the Rebels handled the press, but consistently turned the ball over getting into their halfcourt sets and CM held its own on the glass. No. 13 Walpole roared back from a 21-point deficit to pull within three in the final minute before finally succumbing to the No. 8 Knights, 80-75, last night at a jammed Copeland Field House.
“We made some careless turnovers, we actually beat their press and then would turn it over,” said St. Martin, who admitted he was surprised the Knights went man-to-man after previous opponents had frustrated the Rebels with zone looks. “They did a good job on the boards, where we’re a lot bigger and stronger. They did a good job on the boards and I didn’t think they could.”
Marven Toussaint, who was immense for the Rebels for the second straight contest tying for a game-high 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, drilled a 3-pointer from the right side with 49 seconds remaining to pull within one possession for the first time since late in the first quarter at 76-73.
“It’s been a good experience, it made me grow as a person, just hopefully in the future helps me with playing college basketball,” said Marven Toussaint of the postseason run.
The Knights (19-4) had an answer, however, as Allen Harris waited for the shot clock to wind down inside 10 seconds, drove the lane and, with the help coming over, found Kyle Lawrence cutting the baseline from the right corner. Lawrence hit the lay-up to push the lead out to five with 29 ticks to go, essentially securing CM’s passage into Saturday’s sectional final against the winner of tonight’s Milton/Franklin winner. The Knights, who are slated to move to Division 1 next year, will be looking for their third straight South title.
There were supposed to be no secrets between Walpole and Catholic Memorial entering last night’s Division 2 South boys basketball semifinal. Having come to Walpole from the West Roxbury school after serving as an assistant for the previous eight years, Rebel coach Dave St. Martin knew the bulk of the players that lined up against his squad and certainly knew the Knights coaching staff.
Entering the game, the fear for the Rebels was succumbing to CM’s fullcourt pressure, but believing that they could control the boards and limit the Knights to one look while getting multiple looks at the offensive end.
The contest couldn’t have turned out to be more opposite as the Rebels handled the press, but consistently turned the ball over getting into their halfcourt sets and CM held its own on the glass. No. 13 Walpole roared back from a 21-point deficit to pull within three in the final minute before finally succumbing to the No. 8 Knights, 80-75, last night at a jammed Copeland Field House.
“We made some careless turnovers, we actually beat their press and then would turn it over,” said St. Martin, who admitted he was surprised the Knights went man-to-man after previous opponents had frustrated the Rebels with zone looks. “They did a good job on the boards, where we’re a lot bigger and stronger. They did a good job on the boards and I didn’t think they could.”
Marven Toussaint, who was immense for the Rebels for the second straight contest tying for a game-high 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, drilled a 3-pointer from the right side with 49 seconds remaining to pull within one possession for the first time since late in the first quarter at 76-73.
“It’s been a good experience, it made me grow as a person, just hopefully in the future helps me with playing college basketball,” said Marven Toussaint of the postseason run.
The Knights (19-4) had an answer, however, as Allen Harris waited for the shot clock to wind down inside 10 seconds, drove the lane and, with the help coming over, found Kyle Lawrence cutting the baseline from the right corner. Lawrence hit the lay-up to push the lead out to five with 29 ticks to go, essentially securing CM’s passage into Saturday’s sectional final against the winner of tonight’s Milton/Franklin winner. The Knights, who are slated to move to Division 1 next year, will be looking for their third straight South title.
Lawrence was big for the Knights with the game on the line, scoring 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
“Even when we were up big I knew they were going to quit, they were going to make a run at us,” said CM coach Denis Tobin. “They got it to three and we got lucky Kyle Lawrence got hot down the stretch, I thought Al Harris made the play of the game when we isolated him and we hit Kyle for the bounce pass to make it a two possession game there at the end.
“I give all the credit in the world to Walpole, boy, they played their hearts out. Coach St. Martin should be proud of that team. He’s done a super job.”
Having to beat a pupil to get the win did leave a bitter taste in Tobin’s mouth.
“In the offseason I thought it might be nice and all, but I didn’t enjoy it all, it’s no fun,” he said of playing a former assistant. “A good guy had to lose, and I know how hard he’s worked with them, it’s no fun beating a friend.”
Despite committing turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter, Walpole hung tough, trailing 23-18 after eight minutes behind a strong inside game that saw Derek Hand score six of his nine points and Rory Quinlan add all five of his points.
Catholic Memorial (19-4) stretched the lead to as much as 14 in the second quarter as Jeff Tagger (22 points, 5 assists) capped a 9-0 run with a 3 and the Knights took a 13-point lead to intermission at 40-27. Walpole hampered themselves with 17 turnovers in the first half, most of the sloppy variety more so than from CM pressure.
“Some people were intimidated, you could tell, me included, but we definitely came back in the second half,” said Ryan Terp, who was limited to five points. “Everybody thought, ‘It’s CM, defending champions, they have this persona about them that they’re better than everybody,’. It definitely got to us in the first half.”
CM opened the second half on a 10-2 run for a 50-29 lead with 5:19 to go in the third on a Tagger steal and lay-up. But as he did against Falmouth, Toussaint started knocking down shots and using his defense for easy points, stroking a 3 and getting a pair of lay-ups off steals that cut deficit to 13. A Mike Ennis tip in just before the buzzer made it a 61-46 lead entering the fourth.
Anthony Conway gave Rebels fans a glimpse of next year with a terrific final eight minutes, with eight of his 10 points and five of his seven rebounds, tipping in a missed Terp 3 to cap a 6-0 run to open the fourth, prompting a timeout as Walpole got to within single digits.
The lead fluctuated between eight and 11 for much of the quarter until Terp knocked down a difficult 3 from the right side with 1:41 left to cut the deficit to 74-68. Walpole then forced a shot clock violation and Terp made both ends of a 1-and-1.
Lawrence countered with a pair of free throws of his own to push the lead back to six and provided the big answer to Toussaint’s 3 in the final minute.
(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com)
