Mullin falls shy of 2,000, but St. Seb’s rolls
The wounds from last year’s playoff loss still sting St. Sebastian’s basketball star Trevor Mullin.
With his team set to embark on its latest tournament run, the senior privately reached out to Arrows coach Dave Hinman earlier this week.
The message was that Mullin was more interested in making winning plays, regardless of whether or not they would aid him in his pursuit of a lofty career milestone. The Yale-commit backed his words, scoring 15 points, while freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa registered a game-high 23 points, helping second-seeded St. Sebastian’s (25-1) earn a trip to the NEPSAC Class A semifinals with a 72-52 rout of No. 7 St. Paul’s (N.H.) Wednesday.
Hundreds of fans packed the tight-knit gymnasium, many attending with the hopes of seeing Mullin shatter the 2,000-point barrier. The senior entered the evening needing 26 to reach the mark, and St. Paul’s (159) made a concerted effort to take him out of the game in the early going. When Mullin realized he wasn’t going to have too many shooting opportunities, he started to get creative with the ball.
With 2:28 to play in the opening half, the senior sprinted up the court in transition, and noticed Dybantsa out of the corner of his eye. He proceeded to lob a pass up for the freshman, and was rewarded with a thundering, two-handed alley-oop dunk as St. Sebastian’s took a 3519 lead.
“I’m not really trying to force (things),” said Mullin. “Not really thinking about (the milestone). Just really thinking about trying to get the ‘dub.’ If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. We’re going for a championship here. We’ve got to get that Class A dub. So, we’ve got two games left. If it comes, it comes.”
Logan Carey beat the buzzer with a breakaway slam dunk for St. Paul’s, cutting the deficit to 40-26 at intermission. But the Pelicans were unable to close the gap further.
Midway through the second half, Dybantsa decided to put on a show for the crowd. He gained a head of steam, then drove toward the rack. As he leaped up over multiple defenders, his eyes widened. After the freshman collected himself, he finished a stunning one-handed slam.
“I actually lost the ball,” said Dybantsa. “I know I can dunk off-air, but I wasn’t planning on dunking it until I actually got up there. I just put it down, I started screaming. Got us momentum, and that’s what got us to push.”
Mullin will now look to eclipse 2,000 career points next week when St. Sebastian’s battles Williston Northampton for a chance to play in the NEPSAC’s Class A finals, needing 11 to become the 80th individual in state history to do so. If successful, he would also join his older sister Maddie in accomplishing the feat, and the two would become the first pair of siblings to earn such an accolade in the Commonwealth.
“This is a credit to Trevor,” Hinman said afterward. “We are trying to win a championship, and Trevor is more concerned with that. He sent me a text earlier this week about it. He wants to win a championship. If that milestone comes, then we’ll be really happy for it. If we keep winning, it’s probably going to happen.”