Feels like the first time
Broncos shock Warriors to reach first D-II final
SEEKONK – Where do you start?
Do you begin with the hobbled junior guard who has a high pain tolerance? How about the sturdy junior who owns the type of low-post game that would have made him deadly back when the game of basketball featured peach baskets?
Led by Wes Cournoyer and Dean Ayotte, Burrillville once again went big-game hunting on Wednesday night. The latest prize was a 51-48 upset of Wheeler to advance to Saturday’s Division II championship game against Portsmouth. Cournoyer led the Broncos with 19 points, while Ayotte saved his best work for the fourth quarter where he netted eight of his 16 points.
The win wasn’t secure until Ayotte caught a desperate three-quarters court heave by Wheeler’s Travis Cobain. Protecting a three-point lead, Burrillville was looking to foul Cobain in the backcourt. He wisely let it fly with the hope of drawing a call. The officials never blew their whistle as the Broncos celebrated their second straight playoff win as the road team.
“We don’t exactly have the best history against these guys. The last time we were in a Final Four in Division III, they beat us,” said Burrillville head coach Kevin Randall.
Turning the tables on the Warriors was made possible by the gutsy effort turned in by Cournoyer, also the starting quarterback of the Broncos’ football team. Joining his pigskin teammates will have to wait until next week after Cournoyer buried four 3-pointers while playing on a sprained ankle.
“I told him that NFL guys receive professional treatment five times a day and it takes them a month to recover. He was back in a week and a half,” said Randall. “He’s an alpha male.”
Per Cournoyer, the surge of adrenaline he received while torching Wheeler allowed him to forget that he’s not close to 100 percent.
“It tightens up when I come out, but the coaches will tell me to walk around on the sideline,” said Cournoyer, who has been coming off the bench since returning to the lineup. “It definitely hurts, but I’m going to do whatever I can to help us win.”
It was Ayotte who kept the Broncos in the hunt after Wheeler grabbed a 40-39 lead with under six minutes remaining. Burrillville opened the fourth quarter with three
turnovers over a four-possession span, but things were soon looking up thanks to Ayotte, who scored six straight points.
“I averaged 2.6 points last year and I said to myself that I wasn’t
going to do that again,” said Ayotte. “I’ve been working hard to get that number up and it paid off today. My teammates believe in me and I believe in them. If I was in that same situation, I would pass to them 100 times in a row.”
When Ayotte scooped in his fifth and sixth points as part of his own personal 6-0 run, Burrillville was up one (45-44) and four minutes, 19 seconds away from playing for a title. It remained a one-point lead as both sides went cold. The next points didn’t come until there was 1:59 remaining when Wheeler’s Wyatt Greenburg made two free throws to put his team up 46-44.
The advantage for the Warriors didn’t last long. Cournoyer got his one-handed bid to drop to give Burrillville a lead they would not relinquish. Wheeler came up empty on two straight possessions before Burrillville’s Jared Deschamps pounced on a loose ball and went in for an uncontested lineup that put the visitors up 49-46.
Wheeler got two points closer after Evan Harrison cleaned up a miss. It was back to a three-point game after Ayotte made it a 2-for-2 trip at the foul line with 17.8 seconds left.
The Warriors then missed a corner three but still had a chance after the Broncos missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 7.8 seconds left. Wheeler assumed possession with 5.6 seconds on the clock but saw their bid to force overtime die in front of the Burrillville bench.
“I’ve got six seniors and they all understand how to keep their composure. The leadership I have is uncanny,” said Randall.
It didn’t look to be Burrillville’s night in the early going. Wheeler came out and extended its defense and held the Broncos to 3-of-10 shooting in the first quarter. Randall countered with a smaller lineup that helped to produce four 3s during the second quarter. Still, there was the matter of solving Isaiah Smith-Johnson, who had 20 points at halftime as Wheeler led 31-26. Smith-Johnson finished with 24 points.
“The pressure they had early, it threw us for a loop,” said Randall. “Once Wes got in the game, it changed the complexion.”
Ayotte opened the third quarter with a layup, then showed he’s a two-way player with a block along the baseline. When he backed his way to the basket, Burrillville trailed by three (33-30).
Ayotte then passed the baton to Cournoyer, who scored his team’s final nine points of the third.
After getting a friendly roll and swishing the free throw to complete the three-point play, Cournoyer made two threes to help Burrillville grab a 39-37 lead heading into the final quarter.
“Every playoff game for us has been about weathering the storm. Usually, the other team comes out and hits a couple threes like (Smith-Johnson),” said Cournoyer. “We know we’re the best defensive team in Division II. As soon as we started scoring, we started to get stops. That’s when we got the momentum.”
Burrillville faces defending D-II champion Portsmouth at Rhode Island College on Saturday (2 p.m.).