Lancers use late surge to sink Leominster
Blue Devils fall in Division 2 quarterfinals
Though the upset alert was sounded, the Blue Devils just didn’t have enough left in the tank to finish the job.
Leominster High, seeded 25th, put a scare into No. 1 Malden Catholic for the better part of three quarters Friday night, but ultimately came up short of shocking the Lancers in a 55-38 Division 2 quarterfinal defeat.
“That’s a very good team that plays very good defense. They all can shoot and they execute,” Leominster head coach Kevin Grutchfield said. “We knew it was going to be tough. We didn’t play as well as we needed to in this situation and I take full responsibility for that. We’ve got to do better next time.”
The Lancers will square off with No. 5 Charlestown in the semifinals, with a time and date to be announced. Leominster’s campaign comes to a close with a final mark of 13-11.
Malden Catholic’s Nick Martinez led all scorers with 17 points, while Matthew Gaffney and Ben Howard (11 rebounds) each had 10. Moody Buckley added nine in the victory.
Leominster’s effort was paced by senior Justin Dadah Jr., who had 11 points. Classmate Ricky Encarnacion added 10 in defeat.
“The seniors worked their butts off and the younger kids got a great experience here,” Grutchfield said. “We’re going to get better and build off this.”
Ahead 39- 31 heading to the fourth, the Lancers (21-2) erupted in the final frame to put to rest any doubt what the outcome would be. A 6-1 run with Buckley and Ethan Tracy burying 3s pushed the lead to 51- 36 with 2:31 to go and sank any hope of a Leominster comeback.
Leominster shook off a shaky first quarter that saw the Blue Devils turn the ball over six times to make a game of things in the second. The guests twice trimmed
the Lancer lead to one possession in the frame, but couldn’t quite get over the hump.
The Blue Devils opened the second on a 7-2 run, capped by a Dadah
3-pointer that cut the lead to 17-16
But the Lancers answered with six unanswered points, prompting another Leominster surge. Encarnacion dropped in four straight points to get the guests to within 23-21 with 2:12 left in the half.
Martinez made four free throws late in the half to al
low the Lancers to head to halftime with a 27-23 advantage.
Leominster’s run to the quarterfinals came after a 10-10 regular season that had plenty of ups and downs against a tough schedule. But once the tournament began, the Blue Devils f lipped a switch, storm
ing past Chicopee Comp before sneaking past No. 8 Wakef ield to earn a Sweet 16 berth.
From there, the Blue Devils blew out No. 24 Norwood to land a spot in the quarterfinals.
“They decided they were sick and tired of losing,” Grutchfield said. “They wanted to make a state
ment. I feel like they did by winning three playoff games and making it to the Elite 8.”
In addition to Dadah and Encarnacion, Friday’s contest marked the final high school game for Michael Halstead (four points), Dylan Carr (three points), Chase Hause (three points) and Nico Nevard.